Devourer
by Nothing is Perfect
Summary: First story: On that fateful night, the fourth hokage sealed the yin part of the Kyuubi into his son. Naruto becomes a youkai. Subtle crossovers with plans for expansive ones. Note: Not Konoha-Centric.
1. Prelude

"-Haah...Haa...-"

A small scrawny boy dressed in torn black clothing panted heavily as he rounded a corner of a street, the moon shining brightly overhead. There were whisker-like marks on each cheek and despite his evident young age, his spiky blond hair was flecked with white. Spotting an alley to his right, at an angle hidden at first glance, he dashed into it, pressing himself against the wall. A few seconds pass and he sees an mob of angry villagers rush past his vantage point, brandishing weapons and torches, shouting as they ran.

"He went this way! After him!"

"Get him!"

"Kill the demon!"

The little boy's heart thumped wildly in his chest as he waited for last of the mob's rumbling footsteps to disappear. He then slung a shoddy knapsack off his shoulders, checking if any of its contents had spilled. Upon seeing no holes he smiled tiredly for just a second before suddenly freezing up, remembering he still wasn't in the clear yet. He looked about and carefully made his way to the end of the alley, which led to one of the many forested areas in the village. At the very edge he took one last wary glance around before disappearing into the undergrowth. This marked the second time the boy took this particular route to get out of town.

It was the end of the fall season; the forest was dyed in orange, yellow, and red. Many of the trees' branches were bare, their fall leaves covering the forest floor, and the small boy's footfalls were heavily accentuated with an audible crunch as he continued to run. After a few minutes of rustling through the bushes and trees, he stopped at a large dying hedge that still retained much of its autumn leaves. He reached under, ignoring the uncomfortable prickling feeling of the barbed roots, and lifted it up as if it was a hatch, revealing a natural hole a few feet deep. He slid himself in on his back as he pulled the hedge back over him. Wiping a few stray leaves off as they fell from the hedge's shaking motion, the boy stared up, his worn knapsack unopened at his side. Bright moonlight shined through the cracks in between the leaves onto his body in the patterned appearance of a net. Naruto noticed this and brought one hand above him, watching as the net-like pattern of light bent around it.

 _'This is just how I feel...Trapped...Caught...'_

The small boy grew pensive and he thought about his past...

* * *

In the very beginning of what he could remember, he stayed at a place called an orphanage, a simple wooden building colored with faded paint. Living there was a struggle, and it seemed everyone hated him. The other kids seemed to hate him the most, and whenever he failed to avoid them, they beat him when they thought no adults were looking, spitefully calling him "Demon". The little boy, of course, hated them as well. Sure, he tried to fight back, but he always lost due to their numbers and mostly his weakness. As a result through undergoing this numerous times, he learned the signs of whenever the other kids seemed to form a group, and could always identify the feeling of being watched. Naruto had to struggle for food that the orphanage provided for every other kid except him. He worked hard in sneaking around to steal scraps off the table or when no one was looking. He quickly grew to understand that night was his ally in that regard, and each day Naruto failed and got hungry only fueled his resolve to get better at sneaking around.

There was one person who treated him differently from everyone else, who the little boy latched onto immediately after he was able to walk. She was a bespectacled young woman with shoulder-length light brown hair and emerald green eyes. She always regarded him kindly, and whenever she was around, the other kids wouldn't bother him. The little boy remembered how she would look sad when she saw him covered in bruises from the other kids, and would light her hands in a strange warm, green glow that would make his injuries disappear. It was from her that he first learned his name, Uzumaki Naruto, and his birth date, October 10th.

His time around her was shortlived however, as one day she suddenly disappeared, and Naruto never saw her again. Things got way worse. Immediately, the other adults-who used to only treat him with disdain-changed their attitude to match the children's, and the whole orphanage regarded him with open animosity.

With everyone like that, Naruto decided to avoid them altogether, and left. It turned out that it didn't make much of a difference in his life. Outside the orphanage was a huge village (To which he learned was called Konoha), and everyone there hated him too. When Naruto first saw the people in the streets give him that look- the same face of the people at the orphanage- he froze, and felt as if his chest squeezed his heart tight. He ran, even though there were people in every direction. Panting, he rushed past the buildings to a forest, to which he stayed at to this day. There were people in the forest too sometimes, and Naruto learned that they were 'Ninjas'. The boy generally defined them as people who wore metal headbands with a strange snail symbol on them and were a lot more athletic than the average villager, if Naruto's view of them jumping through the trees was any indication. Encounters with them were rare; the first time he smelled them, as an unfamiliar scent, he already had gotten used to the forest, including how to blend in with it. He evaded or hid from them as they passed by, remembering how ninjas had glared at him in the village.

In terms of food, Naruto lived off the land, although his stomach would growl noisily from time to time in the beginning. Originally, some plants he ate hurt his stomach a lot, making him real feverish and a few turning his skin into different colors. However, those 'episodes' all usually died down within one day, and through this process of trial and error he was able to determine which were safe to eat and which weren't. Overall, he didn't like eating plants very much, and the woods were only home to small animals that always tasted very gritty.

However, while walking around at the edge of the woods he was drawn in by the delectable aromas given off by certain buildings of the village, which turned out to be tasty food of some sort. Although Naruto was someone who didn't want to be noticed by others, it was at times like these where his hunger got the best of him. Seeing how everyone hated him already and the fact he didn't have any money (He also figured even having money was pointless, as who would sell to someone they hate?), the boy figured he had nothing to lose and sought to steal to sate his appetite. He tried his best to do so unseen, so mostly at night where there were less establishments open and less people around. When the small boy noticed how his clothes from the orphanage got all torn due to trekking around in the forest, he branched out to steal more things other than food. The small boy continually seized household commodities, including sanitary products. He typically took care of hygiene at the forest's many streams and rivers. He favored simple black clothing, to blend in at night. The alleys were his friend, particularly because of how no one really went to those and he quickly was able to quickly memorize how they were connected in the village. In terms of stealing, Naruto fell into a routine of where he would create a distraction, usually traps, and take things while no one noticed him. This didn't always work, and the small boy recalled one particular instance where he had broken the back windows of a store to attract the owner's attention while he snuck in the front. Naruto ended up miscalculating how long the owner would be gone and was seen (though in the dead of the night, he doubted the man knew it was him). Hearing the cries of "Stop thief!", Naruto ran out and successfully escaped.

Whenever Naruto failed, or felt he had committed theft too frequently at a certain spot of the forest's edge, he would just travel to the other side or another spot further along. In doing so, Naruto was able to expand his knowledge of the forest and made several 'bases', which were just naturally hidden abodes like under a bush or a thick hole beneath a base of a tree. He had discovered that the village was a lot larger than he had previously imagined, and that the forests were just the outskirts of it, most of the village being a collection of different buildings. While climbing to the top of one the forest's taller trees, Naruto saw that Konoha was bordered by a giant wooden wall more than double the height of the tallest trees.

It wasn't as if Naruto was never spotted, as there were instances where he was chased by people, including ninjas too. Naturally, when he was caught he was beaten, and this occurred more than a few times. Though, this only fueled his drive to be better at sneaking and stealing next time.

So far, it had been about a couple months since Naruto had left the orphanage, and could honestly say his time in the forest had led to some changes to himself. He vividly remembered one time a ninja with a huge dog had chased him into the forest, only to stop and look around confusedly, yelling, "What? There's no trail! He smells just like the forest!-"

* * *

-An orange glow enters the corner of his vision, snapping Naruto awake. Apparently, he had fallen asleep. After checking to confirm no one was around, the village pariah got out of the bush to see it was the crack of dawn, a giant sun sitting on the horizon. Leaving his knapsack filled with stolen stuff under the shrub, Naruto made his way to another edge of the forest, his form hidden from sight, watching a different part of the village. Already, there were people about and Naruto just quietly observed them. The small boy had made this into a habit when he wasn't stealing or exploring the forest. First of all, it was a good way to learn things. Especially on the busier streets, people tended to talk a lot and Naruto would just quietly listen. It was how he learned about society, commonplace knowledge, the name of the whole village, or the date, and a whole bunch of other miscellaneous information including personal topics that held no meaning to the small boy.

Observing the activities of ninjas sometimes yielded interesting things too. For example, Naruto was able to duplicate the whole walking on surfaces thing after watching ninjas walk on walls a few times. It made climbing trees a cinch for him, but running up roofs were still a no go due to the fact that he knew ninjas usually traversed the village by leaping on them. But most of all, despite avoiding people and hating them back for hating him, Naruto was quite lonely. He felt he didn't fit in with society, so watching what it's like was the next best thing.

More and more people got out to the streets as the sun rose higher in the sky. Watching the growing hustle and bustle, Naruto spotted a man carrying a small boy around his age on his shoulders.

"Ok son! Where would you like to go?"

"I want ice cream!"

They disappeared back into the throng of villagers. Realizing his loneliness, Naruto's breathing slowed as his chest clenched tight.

 _'Parents huh?...I wonder where mine are...'_

After spending a few hours more alone observing society, the small child suddenly felt it. A tugging in his gut, the reason he always targeted places that were as close to the edge of the forest as possible and tried to make his thefts in the shortest time frame. It was a small tug, but the implications filled the small boy with dread, as it spelled an awakening for a certain something inside of him. Naruto ran back to the hideout as quickly as he could and randomly threw the knapsack into another bush before curling up into a ball. He closed his eyes in pain as the tugging grew stronger, and found himself in a giant sewerlike room that went as far as he could see in every direction, a place he had come to associate as his mind, or mindscape. The sensation in his gut died away as cold water went up to his knees, and the place was dimly lit with yellow light of no discernible source. A huge gate stood a few meters ahead of him, the space between each thick bar easily the width of a street, a big paper with the word 'seal' on the centermost pillar. A gargantuan fox with dark brown fur lied motionless behind it, and Naruto looked on with no surprise as the fox suddenly cracked open one blood-red slitted eye. It then cackled loudly and fit one of its tails through the cage.

 **"SUFFER NINGEN!"**

Naruto saw a big mass of dark brown fur smash down upon him before pulling him to the other side of the gate. Gripping the small boy with a tail, the fox flared an aura of black flames, causing the small boy to let out a throat-ripping scream. He blanked out from the pain for a moment, recollecting a memory of a different time in his short life to escape the present situation.

* * *

A small blond child barely older than a toddler clumsily waddled over to a young brown-haired woman reading a scroll at a short table. All day, the little boy had seen everyone at the orphanage behave differently than usual. In the fact, the whole building was covered in decorations.

"Nono! Nono!"

The lady looked up while adjusting her glasses. "Ah, hello Naruto. What is it?"

"Wha' is so special about today? Is it a celera- a cele-"

"A celebration?" Nono finished, bemused, her eyes twinkling behind her glasses as she regarded the small child.

"Yea! Tha'!"

Several distant booming and crackling sounds came from somewhere outside the room. Nono seemed to come to a decision and got up, leaving the scroll on the table. She then picked Naruto up and carried him to the nearest window. Outside the glass, Naruto saw all sorts of colorful lights exploding in the sky, appearing and disappearing in a matter of seconds.

"Wow!"

"Hmmm... Indeed..." Nono smiled as she looked upon Naruto's starstruck expression.

"Well, today is a holiday celebrating the defeat of a kyuubi demon that attacked a few years ago."

Upon hearing the word demon, Naruto froze, his attention to the lights in the sky forgotten.

"What's wrong?" Nono asked, frowning. She placed him back down.

The small child looked down at his feet, expression hidden from the bespectacled lady.

"Does it have anythin' to do wid me?"

Nono gave the barest hint of surprise before kneeling down to the child's height, placing one hand on his shoulder and seeing his sullen face.

"Now what would make you think that?"

"Everyone excep' you calls me a demon..."

Feeling a hand on his head, Naruto looked up to see Nono's slightly saddened face.

"Yes...you are connected, yet you are not."

"Wha...Wha' does tha' mean?"

"It means the demon is sea-" Whatever Nono was going to say was cut short as she suddenly bent over coughing, quickly holding one hand over her stomach and the other covering her mouth.

"Wah! Are you ok?"

Naruto caught a glimpse of a black mark on her tongue as he patted her back. After a few moments, she recovered.

"I'm fine Naruto, thank you." Nono's voice was a little more subdued, and she shakily readjusted her glasses as she leaned against the wall beneath the window. Naruto sat beside her, still worried.

"Haaah...Some things in life stay with you no matter what..."

Nono sighed, becoming lost in thought, and Naruto just stayed silent looking at her with a frown. After a moment of meditative silence, she spoke again.

"But you've had love in your life, never forget that. The purpose of _a certain mark_ is to mix a foreign power to the holder. I believe he wanted...protection and aid to whoever bore the mark on their skin."

"Huh?" The small child didn't really know what she was talking about. Nono hid a smile behind her hand. "Fufu...Perhaps you'll understand when you're older."

The lady adjusted her glasses again and reached inside a pouch strapped to her waist, pulling out a small scroll.

"Here Naruto, watch this."

She unraveled it, revealing it have a strange pattern of black lines on it. Naruto watched carefully as she made a funny sign with her hand, and a small cloud of smoke appeared, covering the scroll. When the smoke faded away the small boy saw a metal pointy thing lying on a empty sheet.

"Cool!"

Naruto excitedly shouted. Nono simply waited for the small child to calm down a bit before saying. "In the past, this weapon was used to hurt many people, and yet now..."

The child saw her make the same funny sign, and the metal thing disappeared, the scroll filling up with black lines once more.

"...It can placed in something else, but others can know that it's there."

Nono said before putting the scroll away. Upon seeing Naruto's puzzled look, she apologized.

"Sorry, that's the best way I can say it without giving up my life."

"Huh? Oh well, can you teach me how to do tha'?" Naruto still didn't get what she was talking about, but still was interested in how she did the whole storing thing. By then however, the noise outside stopped, and Nono took a glance outside and then at the clock.

"Sorry Naruto, it's curfew right now. Maybe next time, ok?"

* * *

There was no next time after since that was the last Naruto ever saw her. Although he still didn't understand what Nono meant by protection and aid, or who "he" was, the small boy understood the whole kunai knife thing was a metaphor for him. The small boy was fully aware of why he was hated. The giant fox had once gave its title as 'The great Kyuubi no Yoko, the demon that blows away mountains with a swing of its tails', while the villagers always referred to him as a demon. It wasn't hard to put the two and two together. Though, it seems the villagers thought he was the demon itself, instead of it being in him, not that it made much of a difference.

Meanwhile, the Kyuubi was still burning the small boy with black fire in a fit of rage. The fox had done so with such vehemence as long as he could remember at random intervals, and Naruto especially hated the infernal creature. Every time, he would be in his mindscape with the fox, while his body would slump motionless. It was a strange feeling, because while being tortured by the Kyuubi, Naruto could also feel the sensations of his body and was aware of his surroundings. The small boy also figured out that the Kyuubi could know what was happening to him outside the mindscape.

Originally, when the Kyuubi tortured him at the orphanage, there was little he could do; he was too little and small anyways. He remembered the few times it happened in front of Nono, and she just thought he was just taking a nap or something. But after he left the orphanage, there would be a tug in his gut, almost as if it was a warning as the Kyuubi would awaken just a few moments after. It couldn't have been from the fox, and Naruto was grateful as without it, he would have collapsed to the mercy of the villagers many times over, which would not have been a good thing. Also, whenever Naruto failed, he would feel something in the same place he felt the tug in his gut rumble in discontent and anger too. Whatever it was, it definitely wasn't the fox.

The whole routine with the fox wasn't without its effects. Besides his whitening hair, Naruto always felt some sort of surging energy through himself as the Kyuubi continually burned and crushed him in the grip of black flames. It always helped him out when the nights got too cold. Naruto felt his mind grow clearer, and he could remember better, which caused him more pain and suffering since the memories of the Kyuubi's torture were usually on the forefront of his mind, so it was like he just replayed the whole experience over again. This sort of mental energy seemed to influence his physical body somewhat too, as he felt as if he was marginally faster and stronger after. Injuries that Nono used to heal recovered quickly on their own. Even when his arm was broken all he needed to do was to fix it in place for a little while and it would be as good as new. His senses, particularly smell and hearing, were heightened. The small boy had gotten used to suffering, and developed the ability to think clearly in the face of it. Also, he could feel the emotions of others, including how they felt about him, which in terms of the villagers was always negative. It was a vague sixth sense for now, but Naruto could feel it getting stronger.

After nearly an hour of more smoldering agony, the fire in the Kyuubi's eyes began to recede and its black flame aura dimmed. It was clear that it would be going back to sleep soon. Before doing so, it started one of its customary rants about how weak and puny humans were.

"Heh..." Naruto wheezed out, albeit still crushed in one of the Kyuubi's tails. "Weak and puny...Yet they still beat you didn't they? Wouldn't that make you way more pathetic?"

Naruto knew he was risking more pain, but he decided that he liked pissing it off since he hated it so much. Besides, his fear of the fox had already long disappeared and he had gotten used to being tormented by it. Defiantly, the small child weakly tried to put on a mocking expression while the Kyuubi growled in anger, its sleepiness forgotten.

 **"SILENCE WEAKLING!"** Veins bulged in the giant fox's eyes as it roared. The small child held captive in the fox's dark brown tail screamed as he was lit in flames once more.

* * *

It was winter now, and under a starry night Naruto slowly trudged through the snow covered ground. He was dressed in a (stolen) thick black coat and pants, his now a little frayed knapsack over one shoulder. Although Naruto wanted to just stay in one of his warm underground igloo bases, it was only a few days before the annual Rinne Festival and all that gift giving stuff, and he didn't want to lose out on pilfering any new interesting things the shops would have for this time of year. The villagers tended to stay inside when it snows at night, which makes it easier for him.

Rounding a corner, the village outcast froze as he spotted a small girl wearing a black kimono crying on the snow covered ground. The lamplight above accentuated her dark blue hair and her face was hidden in her hands.

He knew from eavesdropping the whispered conversation of a few adults that there was some sort of law against talking about the Kyuubi and him. Well, he reasoned that was probably why the village kids his generation and a little older were the ones least aware of him anyway, assuming that the law was made around the time of his birth. Of course, the adults always called demon brat and other such unflattering remarks, so the village kids didn't look too well to him either, with the orphanage kids being the worst.

 _'But I have never been seen or talked about around this neighborhood so...'_

"What are you doing out here?" Naruto stepped towards her, an audible crunch of snow accompanying each step. The small girl looked up from her distress, revealing featureless white eyes with a tinge of lavender coloration.

"..I...I..."

"It's chilly out, you should go home. Where's your house?"

She looked around a bit before shaking her head.

"Oh well, come on. Let's go."

He grabbed her hand and led her away in a run. The boy thought that maybe, this was his chance to a good deed and maybe not be so lonely anymore. Following the girl's scent trail backward and reading the small foot indentations in the snow, Naruto eventually made his way to the edge of the neighborhood to the treeline.

 _'Huh? She ran quite far away...'_

Naruto thought as he ran. Eventually the trail led him to a clearing where a big traditional style building sat in its center. Although it was enclosed by tall walls, the huge interior house was still visible by a great deal. The small boy marveled at it as he and the girl stood at the open entrance doors, two characters above them spelling Hyuga.

"You live in a big house like this, and you're crying?" Naruto said, causing the small girl to look at him.

"I don't have anyone, but I don't cry about it. Crying doesn't do anything..." The small boy trailed off as he had a sudden thought.

 _'Wait. The orphanage was big too, and she ran so far away from this place. Was coming here the right idea?'_

"Hey ummm, do you want to come back here?"

"..." The girl did not give an answer, still silently staring at him, the cold winter air giving her rosy cheeks. Naruto, who still looked straight ahead, saw the faint yellow glow in the interior courtyard of the complex. After squinting a bit, he could see that the glow was given off by a few lanterns above a small crowd of people all wearing black clothing. Naruto's sensitive nose caught of whiff of something from the wind that blew through the doors.

 _'Smoke? No it's incense...Let's see, a crowd of people dressed in black with incense...It's a funeral. She ran away, so that must mean...'_

Naruto turned to meet the small girl's white eyes.

"Someone important to you died." Seeing how she still didn't say anything, Naruto continued. "Running away from reality doesn't make it any better."

 _'At any rate, the night is still beginning.'_

"Well, see ya."

The small boy readjusted his knapsack, and turned around in a sprint, heading back to the neighborhood from where he came. There was still time to steal stuff before he got too sleepy.

"...Thank you."

Hearing that soft murmur, Naruto paused in his step, but quickly recovered, his small figure disappearing into the trees.

* * *

It would be about a couple months before Naruto saw her again. One day while he was walking through the now defrosted forest near the neighborhood where he met that girl, he heard noises which sounded like childrens' voices in the distance. The edge of the forest Naruto usually went to in order to sneak into society was in that direction, so Naruto decided to check it out. He was wearing dark green clothes as his usual outfit when taking a walk through the forest, to remain better undetected by ninjas who would be in the forest sometimes. After making his way to the less thicketed area did he see what was going on. Narrowing his eyes, he climbed up a nearby tree.

The small girl from before was there, but three older boys stood in front of her.

"You're one of those weird people who think they're nobles! You think you can look down on us now?"

"What's with those creepy eyes?"

"Freak!"

She looked to be on the verge of tears, and when the middle boy reached out to shove her, Naruto leapt from the tree.

 _ **Wham!**_

The agile pariah had landed a dropkick from the air, knocking the taller boy facefirst into the dirt. The other two were stunned for the briefest second, which was disrupted when Naruto leapt at them, scratching, biting and kicking. Even though those other boys looked to be twice his age, Naruto warily made sure to keep them on one side. Every animalistic swipe and bite was accompanied with a quick agile step back. Through this little routine, Naruto was able to unbalance one of them and make his head fall on a exposed root. Of course, it wasn't as if he came out of it unscathed. Naruto did get some bruising in the process, and the remaining one knocked him back with a punch to the face, earning him a split lip.

He growled, something deep inside him echoing his anger. His pupils slitted and nails extended into claws. The older boy let out a brief frightened cry of "Demon!" before Naruto grabbed his face and smashed it into the tree next to them. It was a bit invigorating, and Naruto wasn't even breathing hard as he watched the older boy's face slide down the rough bark.

With all three down for the count, Naruto then turned to Hinata, partly in dread but mostly not sure what to think. However, the small girl only seemed to be concernedly staring at something on his face or neck, and with a start did Naruto realize the pungent taste of blood in his mouth, with it also trickling down his chin onto his neck.

Suddenly Naruto heard from the rustling of the tree-branches some distance away and knew that something adult-sized was heading towards here.

Naruto heard a voice say "Oh there you are." a second before a short-haired white-eyed man landed from the canopy of the trees, looking at Hinata while a mass of veins bulged around his eyes. He then surveyed the whole scene, barely a glance spared on the three unconscious boys, before settling on the bleeding Naruto, whose blood was starting to stain the collar of his green shirt, although the cut on his lip had already closed.

"This boy..."

The man grabbed the small girl by the arm.

"Come, we are going back."

"Wait... He came to my rescue." She said, unsuccessfully trying to break out of his grip.

"You must not get involved with him. Let us go."

The man said, dragging her away while she looked back at Naruto.

"B-but..."

Naruto stared silently at them, their departure leaving a bad taste in his mouth, besides the blood. The fact that the man wasn't loudly advocating for his demise like other adults didn't make Naruto feel any better. His claws receded and with a blink, his eyes were back to their original blue.

"Tch." _'_ _ _But then again, I guess I shouldn't have expected anything, so it wouldn't hurt so much._ Helping people sucks.'_

Naruto looked back at the three unconscious bullies. _'How about hurting people? Two of them saw me so...'_

The boy spotted a big rock the size of a watermelon naturally embedded in the dirt and scraped it out. Lifting the rock above his head, he smashed it down on the two that saw him, causing big bumps to swell on their skulls. After a second's contemplation, he grabbed the rock and repeated the process to the kid who he had knocked out with a dropkick.

 _'...Just to be safe...'_

The unhappy boy then walked back deeper into the forest with nary a sound.

* * *

It was the next day and Naruto decided to first see if the villagers were aware of him before moving to a different area, so he headed to the edge of the forest to eavesdrop on any conversations he could. But while walking through the forest on the way there, he began to hear a faint voice somewhere deeper in. Sniffing the air, the only person he could detect in the forest was near that big house that girl lived.

Leaping through the trees, he spotted the small girl from before.

"H-hello? Is anyone there...?"

She was timidly walking through the undergrowth, looking behind her at every noise, cradling a small brown box in her hands. The bush ahead of her rustled a bit, and the girl immediately threw both arms forward, holding the object in front of her.

"T-thank you for saving me yesterday..."

She said nervously, eyes shut. After a few seconds of silence, she creaked open one eye to see a small deer exit the bush, take a look at her, and trot off. Up on the branch, Naruto furrowed his eyebrows. _'Is she looking for me?'_

If she was, Naruto didn't sense any negative intent from her and was rather confused. When he was spotted before, Naruto saw more than a few occasions that adults would tell kids about him being a terrible demon and other junk, which the kids would then adopt the same attitude the adults had for him. Based from what the white-eyed man had said about him yesterday, Naruto judged that the man had done the same thing to that girl.

 _'So why is she...?'_

As they were the only ones there, Naruto decided to figure things out and leapt off the branch, startling her when he landed two feet away.

"You are looking for me?" He asked bluntly.

"Y-yes...Here you go..." The small box was pressed into Naruto's hands.

"Thank you for saving me yesterday..." She managed to say clearly, looking straight at Naruto's face. The boy himself was currently inspecting the item with undisguised interest.

"...What is this?" When he didn't receive an answer, he looked up to see her absorbed stare. "Eh, hello?" He waved a hand in front of her face, which seemed to snap her out of it.

"...Sorry...It's medicinal cream for injuries..." She said in a small voice while looking down at the ground, a tint of red on her cheeks.

"Thank you." Naruto said as he put it away into a zippered pocket, although he was inwardly thinking that he wouldn't have to use it for now, or maybe ever, since injuries he got in the past healed before he ever bothered to address them.

 _'Wait! I'm not alone now!'_ Naruto thought with no small measure of excitement. It was the first time since Nono that he was with someone who didn't hate him or despise him in any way. However, the feeling quickly faded as the silence between the two children lengthened. _'Now what?'_

"...Er, do you want to check out the forest with me?" Naruto suggested, already mapping out in his mind all the cool spots to show her.

"...Ah...Yes...!"

And so they went. Naruto showed her places to pick colorful mushrooms (While pointing out most of them aren't edible), hawk nests, clearings where grass grew taller than them, and the top of the four giant heads that overlook the village.

It was sunset when Naruto brought her to the top of the largest waterfall he could find, which was also his favorite fishing spot.

"Wah..." The girl breathed. Small bursts of light appeared all around them as the fireflies came out. Miles of dark green forest could be seen below, and accompanied with the the orange glow of the sky, it made for a truly breathtaking sight.

"Yeah it is cool isn't it?" said Naruto, busy planting a makeshift fishing rod into the ground before standing up. A sudden thought occurred to him and he frowned.

"Come to think of it, what's your name?"

"...Hyuga Hinata..."

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!"

The twitching fishing rod caught his attention and Naruto, with practiced timing, pulled out a carp the size of his arm. Fishing was a skill he figured out last month by himself, and since then, hunger wasn't a problem. Fish were bony, but Naruto didn't really care about that when he ate them cooked. He still stole from society on night raids, but only for interesting items or delicious foods he liked, such as red bean soup or dango. He stuck his prize on a large stick over a fire he prepared ahead of time and recast his line, having seen a whole school of fish in the pool before the waterfall.

While catching some more fish and cooking them, Naruto began striking up a conversation with Hinata about himself, even talking about the Kyubi being in him (To her horror). Hearing her gasp, Naruto calmly remarked.

"Huh. So everyone _does_ think I'm the Kyubi."

"No...! That's...I didn't know about that before either...! It's not your fault...!" said Hinata worriedly.

"Yeah well, there's nothing I can do about it. There's some sort of law against talking about this in the village anyway; I'm only telling you this 'cause we're the only ones here and you don't hate me." Said Naruto, having already come to terms with it.

Naruto got to learn about Hinata, including her clan and its specialties.

"...But...I...don't like...to practice taijutsu...I'm just...no good..." Hinata confessed quietly.

"Eh? Really? Can I see some anyway?" Naruto asked curiously, wanting to see a bit of the village's reputed strongest taijutsu style. Hinata's cheeks grew redder for some reason when he said that and she pushed her fingers together for a bit.

"...Ok..." Hinata said shyly, as she stood up and proceeded to pull off a few intricate rotational maneuvers coupled with palm thrusts.

"Wow..." Said Naruto, watching intently at her movements. A thought suddenly came to him and Naruto stood up, throwing away his fish skeleton. He moved to stand about ten feet away from Hinata before saying.

"Hinata, let's wrangle a bit."

"Ehh?!"

"Yeah let's practice taijutsu together! Come on." said Naruto with an eager smile, beckoning her with curled fingers.

Hinata just stood there for a second before slowly and hesitatingly getting into a stance, feet apart with one arm extending out into a palm with the other held at her side. Naruto seriously sprinted at her and took a swipe, his hand shaped like a claw. In a split second, Hinata pivoted, pushing Naruto's arm to the side and drove her small palm forward in a quick, precise thrust. Naruto felt something drive into him and fell backward, stunned.

"...Oh I'm sorry, it was only meant to stun...Naruto are you ok...?" Hinata asked worriedly. Seeing him unresponsive, she panicked a bit.

"I'm so sorry Naruto, I should have never-" She was cut off in surprise by Naruto's sudden laugh.

"Heh...Hahahaha No this is great Hinata! You could have easily beaten those three older bullies yesterday. Don't you know what this means?"

"...W-what...?"

"You aren't bad, you're great at this! You just got to believe in yourself! Be more positive and confident!" He stood up, moving closer to her, and poked her in the chest while staring deep into her white orbs.

"You already got the ability inside, now all you need to do is express it!"

Hinata shyly looked down, her face reddening.

"...Thank you Naruto..."

They talked a bit more after that, with Hinata expressing some anxiety over entering some sort of academy for ninjas in the future.

"Academy? This wouldn't be a big red building with a sign that says fire on it, would it? The one under that big mountain of faces?"

"...Y-yes..." Hinata stuttered.

"Then you'll be fine! I've seen kids there practice fighting before, and you're way better than any of them! In fact, I'm pretty sure those guys from yesterday went there, and you could have kicked their butts!"

"...O-oh..."

More of the sky grew darker as the sun sank deeper past the horizon. Seeing how late it was getting, Naruto decided to bring Hinata home. The walk back was rather silent, with Naruto noticing Hinata sneaking glances at him every so often for some reason, while he himself quietly thought about her in general.

 _'She can really do things, but...'_ He thought back to those bullies. _'...She's weak at real tense situations...?'_ Naruto looked back on everyone who hated him and/or wanted to beat him up.

 _'I think she's weak against that kind of attitude in general. If Hinata is seen hanging out with me, they would be like that to her too. Maybe I...I should...'_

As the Hyuga compound came into view in the distance, Naruto stopped to say.

"Hinata...I'm going to be moving soon. This is probably the last we're going to see each other, at least for a while." He said reluctantly, already planning on the next forest base he would go to.

"...Oh..." Hinata replied, her weird mood from before seemingly dispelled.

"Goodbye." Naruto turned around and disappeared into the foliage.

* * *

It was that time of year again, where the village of Konohagakure would hold the largest celebration Naruto ever witnessed from it, all to commemorate the anniversary of the Kyuubi's defeat.

Having witnessed it one time before in its entirety after leaving the orphanage, Naruto marked it as a three day festival from October 8th to his birthday, October 10th. The small boy had watched salesmen pop up all over the place selling cool wares and could feel the villagers general cheerful sentiments as they enjoyed the festival. It was a positive attitude that Naruto completely didn't share, in fact he went as far away from the populated areas of the village as possible, no stealing, just as far into the woods as he could. The thought of his birthday brought him no joy, only unease and a sense of being wronged as he knew that the Kyuubi was the one responsible for this whole situation for him.

At the daytime it the villagers would wholeheartedly enjoy the festival, but at night it was a different story. At nighttime it was as if something was brought out in them, they would hunt him down, forming mobs and screaming cries of hatred. Last year Naruto was able to avoid them, but then again last year the number of neighborhoods that knew of his presence was much smaller.

Whatever the case, Naruto just hoped that the Kyuubi festival would pass quickly.

* * *

It would be a vain hope. Of course they would find him. Through the night, Naruto ran through the undergrowth, the roar of an angry mob heard behind him. Yes, the villagers certainly were much more incensed than last year, with the mob much greater in number as well. The small boy had outrun them several times already, yet they always seemed to know where he was, which didn't happen last year at all.

 _'But how? What changed?'_ Naruto thought as he ran, so far not really winded at all. It was especially puzzling because he was positive that in the forest he couldn't be detected using any of the five senses, even by that dog clan's famed nose.

 _'Could it be the kekkei genkai of Hinata's clan?'_

Naruto was struck from his thoughts when he felt a familiar tug in his gut.

 _'No, please not now...'_

The tugging grew in intensity before Naruto felt his body collapse into the grass, his consciousness migrating to his mindscape. The kyuubi awakened, slowly lifting itself to its full, towering height. It regarded Naruto's tiny figure in the distance with feral grin, squeezing one of its ginormous dark brown tails through the extremely spaced thick bars of the gate.

 **"Suffer."**

The Kyuubi intoned maliciously, eyes widening in anticipation as its tail wreathed in dark flames and wrapped around Naruto, causing him to begin screaming. After a few seconds outside the mindscape, the fox saw a large number of humans surround its vessel's prone form.

 **"Ah? What's this?"**

"There you are demon-brat!"

"Nice job with the sensing technique!"

 _'Sensing technique? I see...'_

Naruto thought beneath the pain.

"We'll make you pay for what you've done demon!"

Other such calls echoed through the bedlam, and the Kyuubi's grin widened as it saw Naruto being tightly bound and carried off by the crowd.

 **"I see... So they blame you...heheh...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA"** The giant fox erupted into cackling laughter.

 **"As if you, YOU! Are a demon?! HaHaHa...This truly is too amusing..."** It calmed down and let Naruto out of its grasp, throwing the boy violently against a pillar of the gate. Naruto collided headfirst with it just when he was regaining his senses, and felt an exploding migraine as he fell down into the sewer water in a large splash. He heard the Kyuubi speak in an interested tone as it looked down at him with its closest approximation to an evil smile.

 **"Let's see what these deplorable humans come up with, now that you are under their mercy..."**

* * *

The mob had taken him to a nearby rock quarry and everything went downhill from there, with being pounded by rocks as the opening act.

"J-just le' me...die ah'ready..." Naruto garbled through a mouthful of blood. The small boy was pinned to a wall of stone and covered in red, with sticky blood clumping on some parts of his skin and torn clothes. Fresh blood spilled freely from the many places the mob had stuck him with weapons, and from the stumps where his arms and legs used to be. The fox, of course, was living this up cackling madly the whole time. Naruto wasn't sure how much time passed, being disoriented the whole time.

"Let you die? Hell isn't enough for the likes of you!"

"You can't suffer enough demon!"

While the villagers continue to throw mocking jeers at him, Naruto was suddenly doused in some sort of liquid. He strained his nose to smell past the overpowering stench of blood.

 _'...Oil...?'_

In a part of his vision not obscured by blood, Naruto spotted a ninja step forward to the front of the crowd.

"You deserve this."

The man made several handsigns and spat out a gout of fire at the small boy. The mob then left, the rumble of their footsteps disappearing into the distance. The acrid smell of burning flesh filled the air as Naruto's entire body was coated in flames. He couldn't even scream as his lungs were filled with smoke. Naruto's skin blackened and peeled as the small boy wriggled around desperately. It was pure agony, in a different way than with the Kyuubi's black fire. When he was burned in his mindscape, Naruto's mental body or whatever it is wouldn't be altered in any way while the Kyuubi burned him.

Somewhere along the line, the fox calmed down.

 **"Your clan does possess astounding lifeforce beyond any other humans, but it appears any more than this means your death."** The fox's grin widens as it reached out and grabbed Naruto with a tail covered in black fire.

 **"I can't have that now, can I? Let's see..."** Said the fox as-a-matter-of-factly.

Naruto's sizzled and mutilated body suddenly relit as black flames appeared, dancing across his form in a vulpine-like shroud.

"Aah..Aagh...AAAAAAAH-"

The small boy squirmed around with much more energy, screaming all the while. He ripped free, falling facefirst into the crimson pool of his own blood on the rocky ground below him.

The red liquid steamed, evaporating from the heat. Slowly, the weapons began to be pushed out of his body, his blackened skin flaking off, flesh forming from the stumps of his missing limbs. When the flames died out entirely, the fox going back to sleep, it appeared as if Naruto hadn't just been burning alive. Aside from his burnt and torn clothes, he looked completely fine. However, Naruto didn't care about that, his mind consumed with hatred over the fox and especially those damn villagers.

"...I was wrong, I don't need anyone...I never needed anyone...I wish I was really alone... I want revenge...They want a demon? Fine... **I'll give them a demon."  
**

The small, bedraggled child thought darkly as he slunk off into the trees, a face full of hate.

* * *

How to be a demon? Naruto certainly did not want to ask the Kyuubi for an answer. But generally his impression was that a demon is something evil and malevolent. With vengeance on his mind, the small boy set about using his developed skills in traps and distractions for different purpose than theft.

The next day, luring one of villagers was a piece of cake. An older boy, a bully from when he met Hinata, played near the edge of the forest. Naruto incited him by throwing a rock, and led a chase resulting in the other boy falling in a trap hole.

"Hey! Let me out demon!" It did appear that smashing a rock on his head before did work, as although the bully did know of him, he didn't seem to remember how Naruto had beaten him before.

Naruto wordlessly picked up rocks and began throwing them with all his might, each hitting with a resounding _thwack!_ Naruto grinned widely as the older boy began getting stained in red. Yells of indignation gave way to pitiful cries as Naruto went on, taking each cracking noise he heard with satisfaction.

"Hahaha! You deserve this!" Naruto growled at the bully's prone, unconscious form. _'You certainly won't be the last either.'_

From his black jacket, he pulled out a bottle of cooking oil and poured it down onto the bleeding kid. Naruto then took out a box of matches from his pocket, lighting one.

"I'm gonna burn you all...starting with you."

Just when he about to drop it into the hole, Naruto heard the chirping of insects and leapt up by instinct. Behind him down below he saw a swirl of bugs disperse into a man covered in a hooded thick dark-brown cloak and wearing a porcelain spider mask. Just when the small boy was about to land he felt a hand around his ankle and was pulled into the ground, with only his head sticking out.

 _'I couldn't even smell these guys...'_ Naruto thought with wide eyes as next to him, another man in the same attire but with a panther mask leapt out of the ground. The small boy recognized those people as masked ninjas he'd seen around the village.

"Target acquired. Remove all witnesses."

"Doton: Earth Flow River."

Said panther-mask, his voice lacking any emotion whatsoever, making what Naruto recognized as a tiger hand-seal. The small boy saw his trap hole close up in what looked like mud with the bleeding bully still inside. Naruto felt a cloth cover his mouth, smelling a sweet scent that was similar to the plants that always made him sleepy. Everything faded to black...

* * *

On the edge of consciousness and through lidded eyes, Naruto found himself lying bound on the ground in a large ovular room with a large desk, the word kage inscribed on it along with the leaf symbol of the village (Naruto still thought it looked like a snail). The two ninja were there, with their backs to him. A short monkey-faced old man, dressed in a red robe and a wide hat with the character for fire on it, stood facing them and Naruto. The small boy recognized him as the village leader from hearsay, as well as catching glances at him before. It was night; Moonlight poured in from several large windows behind the desk, casting a shadow on the Hokage's stern face as he conversed to the two ninja.

"-tensions are scaling higher in the village. Word of this must not spread amongst _normal_ shinobi, lest the Uchiha find out with their spies. I have no choice but to rely on you Root."

With a disgusted grimace, the Hokage then gestured to the semi-conscious Naruto.

"Pah...as for this cursed demon, take it away for now, I don't care what you people wish to do with it in the meantime but keep it alive. The Uchiha must not get their hands on it and control the ninetails once more-"

After that it just sounded muffled to Naruto as his vision grew dimmer. The small boy hatefully glared at the hokage before slipping out of consciousness.

When Naruto woke, all he could see was the blinding glare of a white light above him. Giving himself a few seconds for his eyes to adjust, he saw clean white walls all around him, along with many different types of complicated-looking machines. The small boy was tightly restrained on a surgical table, with only room to move his head. To his left a few figures stood around another table, inspecting and preparing numerous long metal instruments and other medical equipment, not that Naruto knew what any of it was. All of them were garbed in large white coats and animal masks, except for one man who had no face-wear, possessing pale white skin and snakelike features.

"Kukukuku...Danzo has quite the opportunity here for me. It looks like coming back to this village was worth it after all..."

The man chuckled disturbingly. He looked up, noticing that Naruto had awakened.

"So you're awake..."

Startled blue met slitted gold as Naruto reflexively asked.

"Where am I? Who are you?"

"A place you'll never leave...As to my identity, I am the great Orochimaru of the Sannin..."

By that point, the other masked ninja surrounded the bound boy, each brandishing a metal utensil. Orochimaru followed behind them, his gait easy and an amused smirk gracing his features. Now that the masked people were closer, Naruto could see blank eyes behind their masks.

"Experiment one, begin."

A monkey masked person intoned emotionlessly.

It was torture. They did a lot of things, but the only ones Naruto really understood were consisted of him being literally being taken apart. They cut into him, extracting organs, muscles, and other flesh; limb removal was a common thing they would do too. Words were useless; it was if the masked people never heard his pleas and screams while Orochimaru wasn't fazed, cheerfully humming while sporting a sadistic, fanged grin. Afterwards, the flow of blood leaking out of him would be stopped by one of them using the green glow technique thing, although this time Naruto never felt any respite, having screamed himself hoarse every time. He then would be taken and left alone in a cell, where the Kyubi typically woke up, and by burning him, regenerated Naruto fully. Its container's predicament brought the fox no end in terms of vindictive glee. Stewing in his cell, hatred grew in the small boy's heart. The boy had long lost track of the time he spent in this awful place, his hair already fully white.

One day after a particularly painful experiment (literally costing him an arm and a leg), one of the masked people was about to wheel Naruto away when Orochimaru stepped in.

"You have your own experiments, but I will try something on the side for me. Go on as you would!"

Orochimaru remarked. The masked person did not move, and the snake sannin turned to Naruto while waving a hand behind his back.

"It won't interfere with your whole pseudojinchuriki creation business. Now go."

An exhausted Naruto had the fortune of seeing the snakelike man roll a creepily long tongue over his fangs.

"Or would you like to join our little friend here?"

Through bleary eyes, Naruto saw the masked person disappear behind the door. It was only him and Orochimaru now, with the snakelike man staring at him with a grin so wide it looked like it bisected his face.

"Well, I would like for you to be _whole_ for this procedure...It's success rate is less than 2%, after all."

The man took a seat with crossed legs, apparently waiting patiently Naruto to regenerate. He didn't have to wait long, the Kyuubi waking up and regenerating his limbs in a matter of seconds through the sheer potency of burning Naruto with its chakra.

"Kukuku...The Kyubi's regenerative powers look to be quite useful...It's no wonder the root couldn't pass this up..."

Said Orochimaru, eyes narrowed hungrily. The snake sannin was puzzled when Naruto continued to burn in black flames, but chalked it up to the brat not having good control over it.

"Then again...Such malice...Such evil...This really doesn't appear to be a power humans can control at all..."

Murmured Orochimaru, enraptured by Naruto's shroud of black flames. Naruto's spontaneous combustion died off after a few minutes, leaving the boy breathless and the verge of consciousness.

"...Still, outbursts such as this would greatly interfere in what I'm about to do..."

Said Orochimaru, the tips of the fingers on his right hand flaring purple flames.

"Five Elements Seal."

The Sannin brought his arm down forcefully onto Naruto's stomach. The boy screamed in pain and everything turned black.

* * *

"-unseal."

Naruto heard as he regained bits of consciousness, before he felt sharp pain burst from his abdomen. Fully awake and still bound, he saw Orochimaru withdraw a hand from his stomach region and began pacing back and forth, nonplussed. The Sannin seemed fully absorbed in his self-discussion, muttering to himself, not noticing that the village pariah had awakened.

"...It's definitely a success...almost 96% integration, the body showing no signs of breakdown or rejection after 10 hours...Strange...Every subject prior immediately showed signs of degrading, with the only previous successful case on the verge of death, his survival a miracle really. But here is too much of a leap, as if there was no risk to begin with..."

Orochimaru's eyes glinted.

"...I wonder..."

The Sannin retrieved a scroll from the folds of his cloak. Unfurling it, Naruto saw it covered in strange black lines just like Nono's scroll from that time. Orochimaru made the same funny handsign as she did, although only one black line on the scroll disappeared. Two thin vials of blood appeared in his hand out of a puff of smoke. The snake sannin put the scroll away and moved out towards one of the strange machines out of Naruto's sight. It took a few moments before the white-haired boy heard Orochimaru's voice.

"Definitely related to that slug, but why...?"

Naruto suddenly saw Orochimaru's face pop above him, the man scrutinizing him intently.

"Yes...that blonde brat...that old blond bat...It all fits..."

The snake sannin began to chuckle mirthfully, his mystery apparently solved.

"Kukukuku...How ironic...To think the child she abandoned would grow up to become...Kukukuku...Fate sure is funny!"

After calming down a bit, Orochimaru addressed Naruto.

"Your body is young, but this is too delicious to pass up. The constitution of the mokuton, particularly its regenerative feats, coupled with the Kyuubi's miraculous healing capabilities, and your heritage...If those traits could be passed to me, perhaps my body would finally become physically capable of mastering **that mode.** "

The snake sannin grinned and opened his mouth wider than humanely possible. Naruto looked on in horror as a gigantic white serpent slithered out, easily encompassing most of the large room. It somewhat held Orochimaru's previous face, and was made up of countless smaller white snakes, some of which seemed to take in Orochimaru's previous body, which had fell to the ground as a heap of stretched skin.

Forked tongue flickering in and out, Orochimaru spoke to Naruto, despite his jaws not moving.

"Before you die, behold my true form, and the secret of my immortality...!"

The monstrous serpent lunged and swallowed the small child whole, biting through the restraints in the process. However, it immediately burst into black flames and spat Naruto out, the boy hitting a white wall with a thud. The flames died out in a few moments, but Naruto tiredly could see that it was in pain. Dead snakes were taken into Orochimaru's form, replaced with alive wriggling ones as the snake sannin grimaced.

"...It looks like I can't use you for my body...The Kyubi's chakra is a poison that even I am not resistant to...Which means the root will certainly fail, at least by their method of conducting the experiments."

The gigantic serpent mused, as it slithered for the large doors.

"...Not that I have any reason to inform them of this. I tire of being back at this pitiful village. Perhaps I should take the nearest root as my body before I leave. It's not like their tongue seal is any use against me. They're emotionless tools, so it would be simple to possess the mind of any of them."

Naruto hatefully glared at as the white snake squeezed through the door, promising a vow of vengeance. He collapsed right after, mental fatigue and hunger taking its toll. Hours later, the masked people returned, one seemingly replaced with a different person (Different mask and body structure). The experiments continued on.

* * *

 **AN: This took way too long to write.  
**

 **Review/Fav/Follow pls :/ (Or all three)**


	2. Metamorphosis

How unfortunate for Naruto that today, the kyuubi's regular torture and the root's experimentation coincidentally occurred at the same time. Black chakra licked his body as Naruto widened his jaw and continued to scream in silent agony. Skin burned, regrew, and burned again. The restraints burned away but it never mattered before what with the pain overload that kept him in place. The sharp, long metal instruments gleamed in the dim light as the blank faced figures danced about in his strained vision, wielding them in excruciating efficiency.

Naruto could feel something internal changing about him besides his white hair. Felt it ever since the beginning of his life. With the Kyuubi's constant torture at irregular intervals, past the unbearable pain the little boy felt sharper, clearer. Such feelings always faded after the end, leaving him gasping and broken on the ground.

Today however, as his mutilated body lay still, suffering from torture from multiple sources, he knew just something would happen. The booming din in his ears just got louder and louder. The searing pain behind his eyes grew and grew and Naruto could almost swear, as he barely glanced at the polished wall, that _something_ was forming in his eyes. The emotionless root members ignored this and continued to extract tissues, organs and other samples at a rapid pace.

The black chakra maintained coating Naruto's form, but a few black embers began gathering at different points on his body. At his cranium, two clusters of flames dissipated and revealed a pair of violently twitching white-furred fox ears. In his mindscape, the kyuubi was distracted from his raucous fit of laughter as he noticed the change himself. **"Oh? Ningen? How interesting!"** The giant dark-brown fox flashed his fangs sadistically. He originally was going to let up soon but decided to continue and see the full extent in Naruto's new additions. Black flames festered on Naruto's backside, burning through the steel operating table and formed numerous long shuddering tails. The little boy's heart was enveloped with black flames as well, and stopped beating. Red splotches covered the floor and instead of blood leaking through his wounds, a black gas-like substance seeped out instead. **"You of all puny humans, now a youkai? How ironic."** The kyuubi laughed maliciously and yawned. Its interest sated, the fox closed his eyes, slapped Naruto's convulsing body outside his cage with his tails, landing with a big splash. Naruto's screaming rose and he saw red.

 _'Huh? What happened to me?'_ Naruto felt oddly… disconnected, his split vision gone. He was in his sewer of a mindscape once again and gazed past the impractically wide bars at the snoring kyuubi, who seemed to have used up his energy. A brief flash of rage was stored for later as he glanced down and gasped at his murky reflection.

His foxy additions and lack of any clothing aside, the boy noticed that his irises disappeared with his eyes now holding a natural blue hue. Black spiral lines with a central point where his pupils had been spread across the whole of both eyes. The lines on his cheeks protruded from his face as actual whiskers, no longer the unnatural birthmarks they used to be. A pair of fox ears adorned his ghost-white hair and ten long fox tails hung out behind him, all of which partially submerged in the water. _'I guess I'm not human anymore... does this mean I'm a real demon now?'_ The admission surprisingly created a rather warm and vindicated feeling in the pit of his stomach. _'I always did hate humans'_ A brief flash permeated his sight and Naruto suddenly saw everything as if his vision was split. He saw both his reflection and…a bloody, partially eaten head in his hands!?

 _ **Crunch. Crunch. Snap.**_ Naruto stared in morbid fascination as he watched (himself?) messily eat the severed head of which he absentmindedly identified as a female, holding the head by its long locks. At that second he realized he could feel none of the pain he felt before. 'I actually feel a lot better' the former boy quietly contemplated, cupping his chin. In the background he could see the strewn body parts in an unfamiliar destroyed room covered in black and red. After observing as (he?) ate the remainder of the human flesh Naruto suddenly felt a tug and seemingly assumed control of his body once more.

Feeling an obstruction in his throat, the former human immediately shut his eyes and coughed into his hand. A small weight fell onto his palm and he opened his eyes to see a chewed up finger.

 _'Looks like I somehow got them...'_

After a small amount of deliberation settled on a dark grin, he promptly swallowed it. Looking around and only seeing nothing but a ruined room with a broken metal door with an indented surface, Naruto ran out.

* * *

Wandering about the empty halls of the root complex, a small white-haired boy clutched his head as he finally collapsed on the floor. Dim lighting fixtures illuminated the hallways, several not working due to being cracked in. Deep lacerations tore at the **walls** while blackish-red liquid dripped from the ceiling. Naruto reflected over the past events as he struggled to sit up, eventually settling on leaning on a wall. He could feel a wet slick on his back, something dripping on his head and would have cared more if not for his persisting headache.

It seemed as if it came out of nowhere, something tugged inside stomach and his head burst. Naruto could hear nothing but dripping noises and his own rough panting, yet a cacophony of voices continued to echo in his mind. Visions bombarded him constantly, producing sights that made no sense to him as he had never seen them before. Voices deeper and softer... People young and old...Day, night, and back to day again...Mountains, rivers, forests...scenes of ferocious battles...murder...

After what seemed like an eternity, the echoes and visions slowly subsided. Fractured images faded away to his split view of his mindscape and the corridor. With a clearer head Naruto slowly got up, focusing more on his present surroundings. He continued moving around, checking each room he came across. Every room yielded the same damaged, wet sight. Some had beds and desks, others had mats and weapon racks, but all were devoid of life and covered in the same dark blood-like substance.

One room's closet was filled with sleeveless black clothing and sandals of varying sizes, most being clothes that could fit a child. Naruto recognized them as the clothing **those people** would wear, and slipped on one the smallest sets. Still, seeing how each room showed up empty, the former boy continued his small journey. 'How big is this place? Will I find anybody?' At this thought he suddenly stopped. 'What would I do if I did find somebody?' Flashes of cold, blank faces with loud screaming appeared and Naruto's mind raced. His features contorted and he formed a bloodthirsty grin. **'I will make them pay. I WILL DESTROY THEM ALL AND THIS DAMN VILLAGE.'**

A few seconds passed accompanied only by the dripping in the ceiling. Naruto's grin dropped to a frown as he was only reminded then of how alone he was. Stress from the day's ordeal soon caught up. 'Since this place is so big, I should rest a little and explore more after' His gut churned at this thought, but Naruto chose to ignore it in the prospect of sleep.

Backtracking back to a room he laid on the bed, not caring about its (bloody?) and cut up state. The little boy had slept in conditions far worse. He closed his eyes. His vision then entirely focused on his mindscape. Naruto opened and closed his eyes again to no avail. The kyuubi's snoring felt far more present now. Anger and hatred bubbled inside of the boy. **'This is all their fault. My suffering is all their fault.'** Something inside Naruto snapped. **'I HATE THEM I HATE THEM I HATE THEM** **I HATE-'** Naruto at that point descended into darkness. His fur on his tails and ears straightened and sharpened to needle-like proportions. His nails lengthened and thickened into curved claws. Naruto's teeth became serrated and sharp. Like a shark, rows upon rows of teeth sprouted in his mouth and even down his throat. Dark mist collected around him, and his face was a picture of blankness, betraying his inner rage.

Suddenly a disembodied voice chuckled, **"Such hatred..."** The dark gas expanded greatly and dwarfed Naruto in a form of a giant black cloud. Massive numbers of humanoid shapes began forming within, eventually appearing as perfect copies of Naruto. Naruto himself felt overwhelmed as his vision divided once again. and again. and again.

A dark presence seemed to meld within. " **Yes, let revenge be the foundation of our power! Make them wish for death!"** the hardened voice lost its intensity and seemed to regard the slumbering kyuubi as it casually spoke, **"Starting with him."**

Spurred on by primal instincts, the Narutos rushed as one through the wide bars towards to the kyuubi. The ever growing dark cloud clung on their forms, obscuring them from sight. The Narutos descended onto the fox in a savage frenzy, maws gaping, claws tearing. At first they stuck on the beast's closest foreleg, but the cloud quickly grew across the rest of the giant fox's form.

In his slumber, the kyuubi felt as if his foreleg had warmed up with a small itch. Quickly though, the he felt painful scratching all over his body. The kyuubi woke with a yowl of pain, opening his eyes to a world of darkness. A heavy presence threatened to crush him, obscuring both vision and smell as the fox struggled, swishing his tails about like mad. The massive numbers of the same hidden youkai ripped and teared into the kyuubi's flesh, **'Consume. Devour.'** echoing in their crazed minds. Naruto's vision had never stopped splitting. He perceived in mad delirium clawing out a chunks of meat, getting smacked away by a gargantuan tail, ripping out a colossal eye using his tails, and much more.

A heavily wounded kyuubi finally managed to leap out of the dark cloud, staggering back as he gathered his chakra. Visible particles quickly gathered on his tail tips and jaws, manifesting into big dark spheres. The chakra leaking wounds on its dark fur having healed already, and its eye regrown, the kyuubi fired the dark spheres into beams of destructive power. Shock-waves were produced as the beams were absorbed by the black mass, which at this point was much larger than the fox itself. The darkness expanded exponentially in response, flooding the giant cage and leaving the kyuubi with no escape.

Pained roars reverberated throughout for a few moments, then silence remained. The dark fog, now pooling out of the cage and flooding Naruto's mindscape, suddenly began to retreat. Swiftly condensing, it consolidated into a single form of one Uzumaki Naruto. The new youkai promptly collapsed as a piercing pain raced throughout his mind, far outclassing his previous headache. Echoes and visions he didn't recognize once again filled his mind, this time to the point he felt as if it would burst.

A pale skinned horned man glowed ethereal white as his eyes opened, revealing greyish rippled eyes... nine small animals assembled in a circle: A blue cat, a caterpillar, a tattooed tanuki, a turtle, a red monkey, a dolphin-horse, a slimy slug, an orange fox, and an ox-octopus...

Apparitions began to cycle faster and faster, the din grew louder and louder. Naruto in his deafened senses suddenly felt something stir inside him, as if calling out for him and the uproar suddenly stopped. The small boy opened his eyes to find himself in a dark room, slightly lit with an array of candles, with an audible hum gradually abating. At the center of the circle, an elderly woman clothed wearing an elaborate kimono sat in seiza, holding out glowing orange palms faced down, in which a steady stream of fiery orange unhurriedly flowed from them into the abdomen of a sleeping red-haired girl who seemed slightly older than him. The girl lied peacefully in a futon upon a large hexagonal pedestal, her shirt slightly pulled up.

There was a strain on the old woman's aged face, which disappeared as the last of the orange energy went into the girl's stomach taking the shape of a black swirl surrounded by a circle made of intricate symbols, and Naruto looked down in shock as he recognized the same shape on his own stomach. _'What does this mean?'_

After placing a hand on it for a few seconds, the old woman breathed out a sigh of relief, pulled the girl's shirt down, and gently placed the covers over her.

"Sweet dreams, Kushina." She whispered. Naruto didn't know why, but that name seemed to strike a chord in him, and he turned his gaze to the girl.

The old lady stood up and turned around, maroon hair swishing behind her as she walked straight towards Naruto.

The boy, still somewhat numb, just watched as she came closer... and passed through him completely. Naruto blinked and quickly turned around, just in time to see the old woman sliding an open tatami door shut.

* * *

Naruto had laid down on the floor for several hours, still failing to go to sleep, and eventually realized he didn't feel tired at all. He had already moved closer to look at the girl, and discovered he just phased through her as well. In fact, the small boy had walked through the thin wood walls and had even fallen through the floor by accident, but somehow caught himself, discovering he could move any which way he wanted. Something within him stopped the boy from straying too far from the girl, and so he spent the past few days floating behind her, learning quite a few things.

Apparently no one could perceive him in any way, and there seemed to be no sign that he was there at all. No shadow, no reflection in the mirror, nothing. He followed along as the girl trained with the old lady (Who he came to know as Mito). They appeared to live alone by themselves in a isolated compound surrounded by cherry blossom trees. Naruto watched as they sparred, which the girl always lost (The old woman was surprisingly nimble for her age). He saw the old lady form strange glowing chains, and the girl struggling to do so as well (She later succeeded making her own small chains on the second day). They would have lunch, where Kushina would wolf down her food first and animatedly show off written symbols to Mito, who always took her time eating. It was then that Naruto first learned they were called "seals", and listened intently on everything they discussed about them. After the sun went down, Naruto watched as the older girl studiously scrawled symbols (Sometimes reading off a scroll) before going to bed.

It was at this time where he decided to go to the old lady, who seemed to sleep at a much later hour. She frequently traveled through some sort of secret passageway in a wall leading underground in the complex, stopping specifically in a room filled to the brim with scrolls in an organized and neat manner, a spiral design etched into the back wall above a double-sided sai symbol. She usually perused them, with Naruto looking over her shoulder each time, and the diamond on her forehead always lit up with a purple glow when she laid a scroll out on the floor. Mito always returned scrolls and took them with her, and Naruto saw that she would exchange them with Kushina, as her "successor to the clan" that Naruto heard her mention once, but never heard the name of.

In a bout of curiosity one night, Naruto tried to test how high he could fly. As he flew higher in the air, he was able to see a mountain in the distance, face growing in anger as he saw the three familiar heads upon it, yet missing a fourth.

 _'This is Konoha, but somewhere I've never been to before.'_ The small child noted. Yet what was up with the missing fourth head? Did they remove it or something? The child decided that it didn't matter and decided to return to the complex. Yet as he did so, his surroundings suddenly blurred, scenes rushing forth until...

* * *

Naruto found himself midair in a classroom full of kids older than him. _'Is this a school? I never went to school before.'_

A calendar on the wall caught his eye, and he was able to see the date being about 2 decades ago. _'So I'm in... the past?... Well that solves how that cliff only has three heads.'_

Looking around some more, he spotted Kushina at the front of the room, looking a year or so older, next to a man wearing a green flak jacket. Naruto glared hatefully as he immediately recognized him as a leaf ninja. "All right. We have a new transfer student today who will be attending our academy-"

"I'm Uzumaki Kushina, dattebane!" She shouted with her eyes closed, before covering her mouth over her verbal tic. Naruto's swirled eyes widened at her surname. ' _Could she be... family?'_ The small boy realized this meant Mito was as well, and that he was part of the clan she talked about. A wide grin slowly spread on his face at the idea.

All around the room the kids began gossiping about her, ignoring the the teacher's halfhearted attempts to get them to settle down.

"Look at the color of her hair!"

"How do you think it got that red?"

"Her hair's really weird."

"I wouldn't go out with hair like that."

Naruto's happy mood instantly evaporated and his tails instinctively lashed out around the room, passing through the children as his expression darkened. _'_ _ _ **I hate them.**_ So this is what school is like. I'm not missing out on anything.'  
_

Kushina touched her hair self consciously before clenching her fists, shouting loudly. "I'm going to be the village's first female Hokage!"

Surprised faces of children met this proclamation, and a few seconds later, a spiky blonde boy stood up, smiling amicably as he said in a soft voice.

"I want to become a great Hokage who will be admired by everyone in the village too." Kushina stared up at him with a furrowed brow.

Something tugged in Naruto's gut and time seemed to speed up for a few seconds, stopping when Naruto saw Kushina surrounded by a group of boys- the teacher nowhere in sight. An annoyed frown crossed her face at the boys' jeers and pointed fingers.

"You have a fat, round face with red hair. From today, we're gonna call you tomato!"

"I hate tomatoes!"

"Me too!"

"I never eat them in my salad!"

Their voices made Naruto feel a pungent burning sensation inside, tails once again whipping forward in a blur, passing through harmlessly through the boys repeatedly. Crimson began to creep at the edges of his vision as the shade of his face grew darker and darker.

Kushina's face reddens in anger as she gritted her teeth. One of the bigger kids saw this and reached for her hair.

"You're getting redder and riper! It's time for harve-"

Kushina grabs the boy's outstretched wrist, her grip forcing the kid on the ground, whimpering in pain, as the rest of the kids take shocked step back. Naruto's face returns to normal as he too is stunned.

"Who're you calling Tomato? Now you listen... I hate tomatoes too, dattebane!"

Kushina swung the kid around like a flail, knocking all the boys back flat on their backs. Naruto watches in awe as she thrashes them all up in a female fury.

 _'Beating up everyone who picks on you... I... **I want to do th** **at too.'**_ The floating boy slowly breaks out a dark grin and something deep inside him rumbles in agreement.

Meanwhile Kushina had grabbed a boy by the collar and threw him face-first into the floor.

"Keep calling me Tomato and you're gonna get it, dattebane!"

The cheerful laughs of the handful of children that were seated, witnessing the entire spectacle, drew her attention.

"What are you laughing at?!" Her shouting did nothing to quell them, although Naruto did notice the spiky blonde kid quickly turn away at his seat, sneaking a glance behind him at Kushina.

Everything blurred once more, until...

* * *

Naruto found himself hanging midair among Sakura trees, pink petals blowing throughout the wind. He spotted Kushina running below, long red hair flowing behind her like a live flame, and floated to her side. The girl suddenly stopped as she saw one of her classmates step out from behind a tree a couple meters ahead. A taller boy stepped out as well, hand on the shorter kid's shoulder. Naruto seethed as he saw the familiar insignia he loathed on a forehead protector the boy wore. The konoha ninja boy strutted forward, arms crossed as the other kid brought up the rear.

"Are you the one who's always making my kid brother cry?"

"That's because he's always messing with me, dattebane!" She heatedly yelled. The boy ignored her and pointed at his forehead.

"I'm a genin! Cool huh?"

 _'No, not cool. Fuck you.'_ Naruto said vehemently, using a phrase he heard others yell at him.

"I have to teach anyone who bullies my kid brother a lesson." The genin cracked his knuckles.

 _'I don't like where this is going.'_ Naruto rushed forward again to no avail, phasing through the genin. Kushina leapt away among the trees, and the genin gave chase, drawing out a kunai (Naruto still fiercely trying to pierce him).

After jumping past a few trees the genin landed on a branch and threw the kunai. Kushina instinctively dodged in midair before kicking off another tree, rebounding straight to the genin, smashing him to the ground with a lariat. Landing on the forest floor, she turned around just in time to see the genin burst in a cloud of smoke, leaving behind a log.

The genin landed behind her, chopping her neck and kicking her forward to the ground. Grabbing her by the hair, he smirked while his kid brother caught up to them.

"You can't even recognize a substitution jutsu? You're still just a kid!"

"Your hair's so red...and it's stiff like thread. It's so ugly."

 _'FUCK YOU. Red hair is the most beautiful ever you... you..._ **you...'** Naruto smoldered.

The classmate laughed a bit and added.

"Serves you right!"

Those words echoed repeatedly through Naruto's mind, his body shook violently as memories of the mocking laughs and jeers of the villagers accompanied by their malevolence flashed through, and his eyes widened at the sight of tears falling down Kushina's face.

Naruto was enraged at this point, yet his face was completely black with no expression visible- only angrily spinning swirl eyes could seen. Besides continually trying to stab them with his tails, his stomach churned as black fog seemed form around the two brothers. Sharp black spikes appeared from the fog and went right through them multiple times, only to retract with no effect. This happened over and over, as Naruto refused to stop.

"I... I don't like my hair either!" Kushina ripped herself free, leaving a couple strands in the genin's hand. Bright red tresses floated gracefully in the wind as he stumbled back, and the girl rushed forward, punching him in the gut followed by a sweep kick to the face. She finished with an axe-kick, slamming her heel down hard on his face. The genin fell on his back, out of it, and Kushina wasted no time getting on top of him, pummeling his face with her fists.

"Even with hair like this, I'm still me! What choice do I have?"

 _'No, your hair's the best. Fuck these people.'_ Naruto felt his rage diminish, as if sucked away somewhere else.

 _'Rip them... Tear them... Ki- not kill, do something much worse to them... But what could be worse than killing?'_ Naruto mused aloud as he watched. Somehow, deep inside, he felt as if he knew the answer already.

The other kid slowly backed away before taking off.

"It's the red-hot Habanero!"

 _'Coward...'_ Naruto sneered.

Eventually, Kushina stepped away, panting lightly. The genin slowly stood up, face bruised and battered.

"Outsider!" He threw his handful of hair at her face, which lost momentum and drifted to the floor.

"As if an outsider can become Hokage!" The genin spat as he turned around and ran.

Naruto was somewhat dumbfounded.

 _'What? Why let him- no them go?'_ The white haired boy turned to see Kushina with a crestfallen expression. The demon turned back to the taller boy's back.

 _'I swear I'll find you and that kid... This may not be the same place, **but I swear I'll find you both.'**_

Kushina had a feeling of being watched and looked up, noticing the blond kid from her class standing on a branch looking at her.

She glowered up at him. "What, you're not going to help me because I'm an outsider?"

He blinked in surprise. "No I..."

"I bet you agree with them too!"

She ran off and Naruto shot a backwards glare at the blond kid before following.

 _'I will remember you_ ** _as well.'_**

Rushing through, the trees parted to the sight of the hokage mountain, and Kushina slowed to stop, gazing up at the three giant faces carved in the stone.

"It's because I don't want to be an outsider... It's because I want this village to be my home... That's the only reason why I said that..." She thought aloud.

Naruto just stared confusedly, not understanding. _'Why? Why would you want this place...?'_

Kushina then huffed and yelled up at the stern cliff-side faces. "Who would want to become Hokage anyway?!"

 _'I don't. I **hate** the hokage.' _ Naruto gnashed his teeth in anger at the thought of the old bastard.

The girl maintained some sort of staring contest with the stern stone faces for a few seconds before walking back into the pink forest.

* * *

The sun set on the horizon when Kushina trudged back into the complex, Naruto trailing behind her. She slid open the door to the room to the training room. Mito was there and seemed to be lost in thought, her visage in a cold fury that Naruto had never seen before. It disappeared as soon as the old lady heard the door slide shut, and she met Kushina's worried gaze with a tired look.

"What's wrong granny?"

Mito seemed to struggle internally with something, before finally saying.

"I... Kushina, you've been a wonderful student, and I'm proud of you."

"What are you saying granny?"

"I will die soon, but there's something important I have to do first." Mito stated gravely.

Naruto's eyes widened and he clenched his fists at his sides. Tears began to leak out of Kushina's eyes as she began to sob.

"No... granny... I-" She choked out. Mito immediately pulled Kushina in a close embrace, stroking her red hair as the girl cried in the old lady's chest. Mito had a sorrowful expression as she spoke.

"I'm truly sorry for what I had done to you as well. I'm sorry you became a vessel of the fox for the sake of this undeserv-" Mito's voice gained the tiniest hint anger at the end, but she quickly forced it all down and stayed silent. Kushina didn't notice in her distress, but Naruto was focused on another part of Mito's words.

 _'Vessel for the fox? So that's what that sealing thing was...'_ Naruto's eyes widened as he recalled that every time Kyuubi tortured him, the fox would always rant about Naruto himself, the fourth hokage, and...

* * *

 _The fox roared as one of its giant tails reached out through the bars, trapping Naruto beneath it. The little boy_ _screamed in agony as black chakra coursed through his body._

 ** _"If it wasn't for your ningen mother, my previous vessel, I would have been free!"_** _The fox descended into a fit of rage. **"C**_ ** _URSE_ _YOU CURSE YOU CURSE YOU CURS-"_**

* * *

Naruto blinked back to focus. _'Is she my... No she's my mother, she must be!'_ The little boy stared at Kushina in a sense of wonder.

Mito's eyes opened ever so slightly.

"Kushina... please, if anyone asks...say that I disappeared one day, and that you looked everywhere but couldn't find me...please... this is my last wish."

Kushina nodded, still crying. They stayed that way, neither willing to move. It was when the beginning of dusk arrived that Kushina fell asleep in Mito's lap. Naruto watched as the old lady gently picked up her up and carried her away to her room, tucking her in a futon. Mito then spent some time tracing a finger gently on Kushina's face. A curved seal glowed briefly around the sleeping girl's eyes before disappearing completely, and the old lady stood up to leave.

"I hope you obtain happiness... Goodbye." Mito whispered as she left the room. Naruto glanced at his mother for a bit before floating to see what Mito was going to do. He found her murmuring to herself as she walked out of the complex.

"-to involve her? No... She already has a heavy burden...I refuse to worsen her life with this curse of revenge..."

Naruto continued to follow her to the Konoha's streets. Mito seemed at first to just be wandering around aimlessly, until Naruto noticed she had the strange habit of touching walls every so often. He noticed a vague, hard to make out mark with a surrounding area of squiggles left behind on surfaces after each touch. It wasn't just her hands that did this, as every odd step or so left this on the ground as well.

 _'So that's where they came from...'_ Naruto remembered seeing the same vague mark all around Konoha in his time. The boy recalled that only he alone seemed to see them, and felt faintly puzzled. _'Maybe... the old lady made it so only family could see it? Like me?'_

Naruto's eyes shined. _'That's really cool.'_

Mito continued on this strange sojourn, never walking the same street twice, and she seemed to make no noise at all as she walked with a surprising speed. The old lady moved with silence that was both graceful and covert, as she seemed to stride right past guards without their notice, walking into places Naruto somewhat recognized as other clan compounds, albeit they looked a bit different, newer. Out of curiosity Naruto flew up and began tracing Mito's path, and found it to shape some sort of complex diagram, almost like a...

 _'...Seal...This is a seal?'_ He wondered, fascinated.

In the dead of the night, Mito had stopped walking on the streets but instead went to the tunnels in Hokage mountain, repeating the process.

She eventually finished, appearing a bit fatigued, her diamond flashing for a few minutes. After a few seconds, the old lady, in a much slower speed, made her way down the tunnels, and all the way back to the remote complex. The old lady strangely didn't leave not even a single mark there. Mito went through the secret passageway and turned around, facing the entrance from the inside.

"I won't... let this place... be used by those traitors." She rasped in anger, voice growing feebler as a seal blossomed on the doorway, the pattern spreading down the corridor, eventually enveloping the whole hidden library.

If viewed from the outside, one would see the nearly undetectable outline of the hidden entrance vanish completely, reverting to a regular wall.

Inside, Mito began slowly shuffling down the corridor, her body leaning against the wall for support.

"So this is my limit. I have the means to destroy it, but neither the chakra nor life force." Mito sighed exhaustively.

"I'm too old for this. My only hope left is some future Uzumaki to find this place and find me... I refuse to believe those lies of no survivors."

Naruto is confused at this, not sure what she's talking about, and watches as Mito stands before the back wall, where the thick red lines on the walls converged to a giant spiral. The elderly Uzumaki clasped her hands together, and the spiral on the wall began to spin faster and faster. Mito's maroon hair began to float up as her body glowed a red hue. The forehead diamond faded from her forehead and she promptly spat out a mouthful of blood on the spiral, which seemed to integrate the red liquid.

"If this fails, I die...But if I succeed, I neither live nor die."

Coughing up blood, the old lady saw her hands in front of her beginning to become transparent and cracked a smile. Naruto's face was filled with worry, unsure of what to do yet wishing he could help her.

"Sorry Hashirama-kun, I still won't be able to see you again for ... who knows long."

Mito's form eventually disappeared as if she never existed, and the spiral stopped its spin. Naruto blinked once, then twice. Spots of black danced in his his sight and he felt something wet on his cheeks. Wiping his hand across his face a few times, Naruto saw them covered by some sort of inky black liquid.

After a few hours, Naruto seemed to stir from his stupor and he went to leave. As he phased through the entrance, he was surprised to find himself emerge to one of Konoha's streets, the sky a bit lighter in the start of dawn.

 _'Wait a second...'_ Naruto turned back around, eyes trained on the vague red mark. He phased through the wall to find himself in the library once more and phased himself back out. Spotting another red mark on a wall a couple feet away, he went through to find the same result. Before he could seriously think about it any more, everything blurred once more...

* * *

Naruto found himself in a room the complex once more. An orange light of sunset from the window cast a deep shadow into the empty room, and Naruto's tails stiffened. His intuition, honed from avoiding adults his entire short life, sensed that he wasn't alone. The wind blew in ominously, and Naruto heard a voice he immediately recognized as Kushina's, but a little... older.

"I'm home."

Kushina announced as she slid open a tatami door. She wore a short-sleeved, tan kimono-like blouse with a dark skirt, stockings, and a hairclip framing the left side of her face. Naruto's eyes flashed, and he sported a complicated expression as he stared at the forehead protector she wore on her head. The little boy also noticed that Kushina was now about the same age as the genin he saw her beat up earlier, and felt strange seeing her change so quickly before him in practically a very short time.

Kushina flinched as she felt something was off, and didn't enter. She gasped as three figures rose from the dark corners of the room, three ovular shapes emblazoned on their forehead protectors. Naruto never saw that symbol before but did know the three men were ninjas of some sort. Kushina ran from the room, and the three ninjas leapt after her. Naruto watched helplessly in anger as he saw her trip in a hallway before getting quickly bound and kidnapped, struggling all the while.

Everything blurred again, but Naruto didn't pay any attention, his hands clenched so hard, a trickle of black leaked from his fists.

* * *

The full moon glowed faintly in the sky. Naruto found himself in a forest during the dead of the night. He growled as he saw his mother, hands bound behind her back with rope, stumbling tiredly along with spiritless eyes, being led by two ninja. The last one walked behind her, holding on the rest of the rope. Naruto saw clearly through the darkness that Kushina seemed to be dropping strands of her red hair on the ground every so often without being noticed.

The girl herself had been doing this for hours in hopes of rescue, but remembered bitterly how everyone ostracized her for being an outsider, and her hopes slowly diminished to the present, leaving her in this lifeless state.

Naruto's fury at the sight quickly built, and he was about to lash out (despite that he knew he couldn't touch anything) before his spiral eyes tracked a trace of movement at the edge of his vision. Silently leaping around the trees behind the group was the blond boy, who Naruto saw also was taller and wore the piece of metal the youkai hated so much. The boy quickly leapt down-dispatched the man the back of the group-and jumped back into the cover of the trees. The two ninja at the front turned around at the sound of their fellow shinobi hitting the floor. The blond boy appeared behind them, knocking another down on the ground with a kick to head before the other ninja could react, and leapt back up into the cover of the leaves. The last shinobi jumped away in the opposite direction through the trees, leaving Kushina behind. Naruto never left her side of course, but saw she didn't even seem to notice that her kidnappers were attacked. Head bowed, she continued stumbling forward. Naruto's fox ears twitched as he heard somewhere in the trees the telltale noise of pierced flesh followed by something tumbling through the branches, hitting the ground with a thump. A part of the little youkai felt somewhat grateful to the blond boy, but another still held some instinctual suspicion due to his headband.

The blond boy suddenly landed a couple meters in front of Kushina.

"Are you hurt?" He asked concernedly. Kushina still ambled a few steps before finally snapping out of her daze, looking up at him. The boy smiled openly.

"I came to save you."

Kushina began to smile in relief but lapsed in consciousness. The blond kid noticed and dashed forward to her side, catching her by the shoulders before she could collapse on the ground.

"You'll be all right now." He whispered as she opened her eyes again.

The boy scooped her up in his arms. Kushina snapped out of her daze.

"Hey, wait a minute!"

The blond boy didn't wait and jumped up, still holding Naruto's mother bridal style, easily breaking through the trees. Naruto flew behind them, a weird feeling arising in his chest at the sight of the two soaring through the sky under the bright full moon.

Kushina just stared at the blond kid's calm face, his bangs waving smoothly in the wind. At hindsight, she couldn't really believe it. She always thought this kid was just another one of those wimpy boys from her class. Kushina thought about it a bit more, realizing that he never was a part of the groups of kids that messed with her, and was always silently off on his own. Something fluttered in the corner of her eye and she looked down. Clutched between his fingers were a few strands of her hair.

"That's..."

"Your hair is beautiful, so I noticed right away."

 _'This guy gets it...'_ Naruto felt a bit better about the blond boy.

Kushina looked up in surprise, but turned away, gazing out at the forest down below.

"But you've always ignored me."

"Because I know that you're strong, in body and in spirit." The blond boy replied sincerely, and Kushina began to feel a strange warmth in her chest. The two landed on top of a tree, and Minato matched her gaze.

"But this is a fight between two villages. It's different from your other fights so..."

"So?" Kushina implored, her heart beating a bit faster in anticipation.

"I didn't want to lose you."

Seeing his mother faintly blush and smile a bit, Naruto felt the weird feeling grow much stronger, and he stared incomprehensibly.

Something seemed to pass through her mind, and Kushina frowned, hesitantly asking. "Even if I'm an outsider?"

The blond kid furrowed his brow in confusion. "Why do you say that? You live in the Hidden Leaf Village, so you're one of us."

Naruto felt a spark of anger that quickly ignited, drowning out the weird feeling, although his expression didn't change. _'No, **I** am definitely not one of them **... I will never be one of them...'**_ He spat.

However, the youkai's negative emotions evaporated as soon as he saw the blond kid close his eyes and smile at his mother, who blushed back.

The world spun around in a blur once again, and Naruto was left confusedly stewing in this strange new feeling he never felt before.

* * *

Naruto found himself in a rather homely kitchen. The youkai saw the back of a woman who hummed cheerfully as she prepared something in a pot at a kitchen counter. Her ankle-length red hair was tied behind her back, and she wore an apron over an orange shirt and black pants. Naruto realized that she must be his mother, but as an adult.

 _'Mom's really pretty...'-_ Naruto shook his head quickly as if chastising himself- _'No she's the prettiest!'_

Naruto did feel a bit... sad inside as he looked at his now grown-up mom. He felt a distance grow between himself and her, besides the fact that she couldn't perceive him at all.

The woman put the lid on the pot and heated it on the stove. She stopped humming, watching it boil.

"I wonder when Minato-kun will get back..."

Naruto noticed a blond man walk in the dining room, clad in ninja attire the little boy hated. Naruto supposed this was the same blond kid, except grown up as well. Staring at his face, Naruto couldn't help but feel a strange sense of familiarity, as if he had seen him before.

Kushina heard the footsteps and turned around, violet eyes lighting up at the sight of the blond man.

"Minato! What did the Sandaime want with you?" She walked up to him. Naruto connected the name Minato to the blond man and waited for his response.

"Well..."

"Did you get scolded?" Kushina smiled playfully and leaned against him. "So what? Don't worry about it."

Minato smiled, and casually tried to play things off.

"Well it wasn't that..."

"Then what?"

"Well, he wants me to be the fourth hokage."

With a start, Naruto immediately understood why he seemed so familiar. _'That fourth rock face! This guy...'_

"Oh really? Don't mind the hokage"-Kushina then realized what Minato just said-"What?! What did you just say?!"

The blond man was calm as he reiterated. "I've been named the fourth hokage."

Kushina snapped out of her shock and happily glomped Minato.

"Congratulations, dattebane!"

 _'I don't think it's that cool...'_ Seeing his mother's reaction, Naruto felt a bit happy as well, but still kept his hatred of the title. From what he knew, like that old fart, the hokage is the **leader of** **everyone in the village,** yet the little boy for some reason couldn't muster any hate for the blond man.

This left his mind muddled with conflicting thoughts, and everything spun again...

* * *

...Leaving him in the same place as before, although this time Minato seemed to be the one cooking something at the kitchen counter. Naruto saw his mother in a happy and excited mood. Kushina had evidently said something, as Minato was stunned, the mixing bowl almost slipping from his fingers.

"Huh? A baby due October 10th?" He said in amazement.

"I'm going to be a mother dattebane!" Kushina was absolutely elated, a tender hand on her stomach.

"And I'm going to be a father..." Minato breathed.

 _'October 10th, then... that's me.'_ Naruto stared with wide eyes as something occurred to him. _'Minato...the fourth hokage..._ _ _is my father..._ '_

His eyes welled with black as he remembered what happened to the fourth hokage. His original malice and satisfaction over the fourth leader of the village's death crumbled into deep sorrow. A horrifying thought stuck him again, one that he had suppressed in the beginning when he first figured out Kushina was his mother.

 _'I... I never met either of them...they must be dead...'_ The little boy's breathing quickens, and the first drops of black tears fall.

Meanwhile, Kushina happily shouted louder. "I'm going to be a mother!"

"I'm going to be a father..." Minato says warmly.

The slowly step towards each other as they talk.

"A mother!"

"Imagine that, me... a father..."

 _'They...want me...They're...excited about me...They...care...Agh'_

A rush of warmth accompanied with sadness surged through his body, and the little boy felt his tiny world expand to include two very special people. Naruto watched stock still, black liquid falling much faster. He kept his eyes wide open as his parents embraced, laughing happily together, not wanting one second of the moment escape. Somewhere deep inside him, a dark presence seemed to churn, and Naruto somehow felt it was in pain.

 _Thump... thump..._

The little boy's inert scorched black heart began to beat weakly, but stopped after a few seconds as he noticed the world spinning around him again...

* * *

His parents were there, although there seemed to be a slightly different atmosphere. His mother wore a high-collared, sleeveless blouse under a long, loose-fitting dress, a faint bulge at her stomach. His father had his same ninja uniform on, but wore a short sleeved jacket over it, the back inscribed with the words _Yondaime Hokage_.

Minato was calm and collected as he spoke. "I'm leaving now."

Kushina worriedly said. "Please be careful. Don't you die before you see your own child's face."

She gently rubbed her stomach. "After this child is born, I'll have two things to worry after."

The Yondaime immediately beamed reassuringly. "Don't worry! I'll protect our child! No matter what happens, I'll do what ever it takes."

 _Thump..._ Naruto's dead heart beat once. _'You can't help me if you're dead...'_

Kushina was still anxious, hands clasped as if in prayer. "...But you're gonna be so busy with being Hokage. What if our kid ends up a troublemaker who wants to be hokage and won't listen to anything anyone says... And what if he's totally insensitive towards girls... and talks back to all his teachers and... and..."

 _'Don't worry mom... I won't be any of those things.'_ Naruto resolutely promised, his spiral eyes spinning fervently.

 _'Trouble always finds me instead of the other way around...I **definitely** won't ever want to be hokage of that **wretched** **place**...I'll listen to you, that's most important of all...I won't go to school so don't worry about teachers...I won't be insensitive to girls...'_

"J... Just hold on a sec!" Minato held out both arms placatingly at Kushina's panic.

"He's not even born yet! Don't you think you're worrying a bit too much? What makes you so sure he's going to be a boy... or wants to become hokage? How could you know any of that now?"

"It's because I'm his mother." Kushina replied as if it was an obvious fact.

 _Thump... 'I...I swear I won't be like that...'_

"...!" Minato turned a bit red, flustered. "Anyways... I'm hokage. I'm not gonna die that easily. If anything happens happens to that child, then I, the hokage will protect him. So don't worry!"

Kushina eyed him critically. "I'm gonna hold you to that, you'd better swear to it!"

"Of course..." Minato winked. "I'm his father, after all."

 _Thump... Thump..._

Black began to taint the sewer water in his mindscape as Naruto's tears continued to fall. He didn't wipe his eyes once, wanting to capture the scene into his memory. The world spun again, and Naruto's heart stilled once more.

* * *

"It hurts, dattebane!"

The first thing the little boy heard was a loud wail of pain from a voice he recognized as Kushina's. Distraught and fearful for her safety, he quickly looked around for his mother. Naruto found himself in a torch lit room of sedimentary walls and floors. He saw his mother lying on a raised platform, teeth clenched and head tossing and turning, her red hair spread out like a fan. Her shirt was rolled up to expose her huge stomach, and a large cloth covered her lower body, extending to the floor. His father, clad in only a blue shirt and pants, stood over her worriedly, both hands held above the black swirl on her stomach. An old brown haired woman crouched slightly, eyes trained underneath the cloth, both arms seemingly reaching out for something. Another younger lady stood next to them, looking on encouragingly. A small table sat next to them, with a basin full of hot water and several cloths in it.

Naruto stared, eyes streaming, as his mother groaned and screamed, his eyes drawn to her bulging stomach.

 _'It's...It's my fault...'_ His fists shook as he bit his lip hard, black liquid dripping from his mouth.

 _'Is she dead because of me?...I really am a **demon child.** ' _Black gushed like a fountain, yet Naruto's eyes still stayed wide open.

 ** _'_ _ **I'** m sorry __I'm sorry_ _I'm sorry_ _I'm sorry_ _I'm sorry_** _ **I'm sorry-'** _ The little boy endlessly apologized, even though he already knew that it was useless.

Minato sweated worriedly. "Um... I've never seen her cry out in pain like this before...Do you...really think she'll be alright?"

"Of course!" The old woman shouted out. "Just keep an eye on the Kyuubi's seal!"

"But...this is..."

"You are the Yondaime hokage! Don't just gape at me like that! This much pain would kill a man! But women are strong!"

Naruto felt a flare of something, an image of a giant fox snarling angrily came up as Kushina cried out again. _'This is also that **fox's fault** '_

The little boy instantly felt his hatred of the kyuubi explode, and also noticed that the black swirl on his mother's stomach had condensed into an eye. Minato seemed to feel something due to that change, as his face suddenly had traces of exertion, and his hands shook uncontrollably.

"Hang in there Kushina! Hang in there Naruto!" He encouraged.

Naruto, in his unstable mental and emotional state, wasn't really sure how much time passed after that, but snapped at attention when the old woman shouted.

"I can see the head! Just a little more, Kushina!"

The younger lady also added while she slipped the cloths in the water, "You can do it, Kushina-san!"

"Naruto! Come out quickly! Nine tails, you stay put!" Minato shouted, eyes closed in concentration.

Kushina threw her head back for one final shout, and collapsed, panting exhaustively.

Suddenly, lively cries filled the room.

"He's here..." Minato scarcely breathed.

"Hot water!" The old woman barked, holding a small shape under Kushina's cloth.

"Right!" The younger lady pulled a warm cloth from the basin, wrapping the shape before pulling it out, revealing a crying baby, a tuft of spiky blond hair on his head. whisker-like birthmarks on each cheek.

"Congratulations! It's a healthy baby boy!"

Naruto stared at his baby self at first in shock, then narrowed his eyes. _'Mom's tired...shut up me!'_ -at the baby's continued loud cries, Naruto's temper flared- _'WHY WON'T I SHUT UP'_

His anger towards himself was sucked away as he saw his father wipe away tears of joy. "Haha...! I'm a father...!"

 _Thump...Thump..._

The old woman, holding the baby, started walking along the side of the table approaching Minato. The Yondaime reached out a tentative hand, but the old woman snorted and turned away.

"Don't touch him."-Minato, startled, withdrew his hand, subconsciously letting out a noise of protest-"The mother sees him first."

Happy tears began to well in Kushina's eyes as the baby was placed beside her, and it seemed to Naruto that she didn't care that he was crying so loudly.

"Naruto...I finally get to see you."

His sluggish heart beat faster, but quickly faltered as the old lady then picked the baby back up.

"You'll have lots more time later." The old woman walked away, the younger lady following behind her.

"There there..."

Minato places his hand over Kushina's, a tender expression on both their faces.  
"How are you feeling?"

"Ok...Minato..."

The Yondaime then moves both hands over the eye on Kushina's now flat stomach.

"All right Kushina, I know you're worn out from giving birth, but I'm going to completely seal the nine-tails."

"Right...!"

A strangled scream rang through the air, Minato and Naruto immediately spun to face the commotion, Kushina angling her head to do so. The old woman and the other lady fell to the ground with thud, small pools of blood leaking from their necks.

"Biwako! Taji!"

A hooded cloaked man held baby Naruto, one hand poised threateningly above the wailing infant. He wore a mask decorated with a flame motif, with only one hole for the right eye.

"Fourth hokage Minato, step away from the jinchuriki... or else this child will only live to the ripe old age of one minute..." The masked man spoke in a deep, mocking voice.

Naruto instantly felt hatred towards the masked man, and a deep loathing for himself. _'I'm so weak and powerless, just a burden...I'm just lying there, bawling my eyes out like an idiot...Those **fucks** were right, I am useless...no...I'm worse than useless...' _ It was if the youkai didn't register he was just a baby, only seeing that he was being completely used against the two people he held dear.

Minato fixed the masked man a steely glare, his body tense like a spring.

Kushina suddenly cried out, forcing Minato to split his attention. Black lines made of complex scribbles spread around Kushina's body, and the black eye seemed to partially bulge out of her stomach.

The hooded man flicked a kunai into his hand from his sleeve, and spoke in the same derisive manner. "Back away from the jinchuriki...or don't you care if your son dies?"

Naruto's teeth sharpened into fangs, and his facial complexion became a complete black.

"Wait! J-Just calm down!" Minato frantically alternated between Naruto and Kushina.

"Speak for yourself Minato. I'm perfectly calm." The masked man tossed the baby into the air, kunai thrusting up to stab it.

"Naruto!" Kushina screamed.

The baby disappeared, but Naruto saw that his father had whooshed forward at a blinding speed, catching the infant and landing feet stuck on an opposite wall.

"Well well... I must hand it to the Yellow Flash."-The masked man made a single handseal-"But what now?"

Minato noticed that the baby's cloth was covered in explosive tags, which all ignited.

"Minato! Naruto!" Kushina called out in fear. Naruto then saw his father and the infant disappear as if they were never there. The masked man looked around a bit, seeing nothing, and chuckled. A vast spiral void emanated from him, quickly engulfing the whole room.

* * *

Kushina found herself outside on a small rock jutting out of large pool of water, a few masked bodies bobbing on the surface. Black lined symbols covered her skin like veins and two shot out of her wrists, piercing surrounding bluffs and rooting her in place, not that she had any energy to struggle anyway. The thick black veins grew steadily larger, and Naruto saw his mother gasping in pain.

"What... are you after?" Waves of sweat dripped off of Kushina's face as she hoarsely gasped.

"I came to rip the Nine-Tails from your stomach and use it to crush the hidden leaf." Came an indifferent reply.

"...What...?!" Kushina huffed out.

"Minato's teleportation technique uses a special marking that lets him instantly move from one marking to the next. He made sure to mark your sealing formula with it too...all so he would always be there to protect you..."-Naruto's heart clenched painfully out of nowhere-"...But I managed to put quite the distance between you, and the seal has been greatly weakened from birth."

The light of the full moon illuminated the masked man's form, and Naruto clearly saw a spinning red pinwheel eye inside the hole of the mask. The little boy immediately recognized it as the same eye several people in the village had. Thoughts of the village subconsciously caused his fur to straighten into sharp spikes.

"Do you have **any** idea how long I've waited for this moment?!"

Staring into the eye, Naruto suddenly had a vision of a giant orange fox with nine tails, heavily chained and impaled with numerous spikes. Suddenly the eyes of the fox transformed into the spinning red pinwheel eyes of the masked man.

He snapped out of it as he heard Kushina scream in agony. His mother's eyes rolled back, and her entire body was covered in an intense orange layer of chakra. Naruto's nails grew into curved claws and he howled in rage, his tails instinctively lashing through the masked man's body to no effect. In Naruto's mind, the barest hint of a crack could be seen on a wall.

 _'I want to rip him... tear him to shreds...I want to **brutally kill him**... no... **I want him to have endless suffering...'**_ In his mindscape, a dark aura exploded out the small youkai's body. Naruto's serrated teeth grinded together, producing an earsplitting sound.

The masked man formed a handseal. "Now then, come out Nine-tails!"

A stream of black burst out of the eye on Kushina's stomach, heading to the sky and expanding to a gargantuan size of an orange fox head, before shaping torso, arms, legs and nine tails. The kyuubi landed on the ground, shaking the earth in a deafening roar, its tails flinging gusts of wind with each movement.

Naruto saw the orange cloak of chakra fade, and his mother collapsed on the rock, black veins no longer present.

The masked man turned to face the fox. "We head for the hidden leaf village." He commanded.

"S... Stop..." Kushina gasped out with half-lidded eyes.

The masked man paused in his step. "...The Uzumaki clan really is something special. Even wrenching a tailed beast out of your body didn't kill you right away."

The kyuubi's eyes mindlessly focused on the tiny figure far below it and raised its arm high, casting a huge shadow upon Kushina and pool of water.

"It's only fitting for the Nine-tails to kill its former jinchuriki."

The claw descended with all of the kyuubi's might. Naruto nearly saw red, but in the corner of his eye, he saw a flickering shape. His mother disappeared and the fox's palm smashed into the ground nearly a millisecond after. Naruto saw his father appear on top of a tree some distance away, his mother lying his arms. The little youkai immediately flew up to join them.

"A small _flash_ of hope"-The masked man snickered quietly-"...But it's too late."

"Minato..." Naruto saw his mother's chest rise and fall sluggishly. "...Is Naruto...Is Naruto okay...?"

The youkai bit bloody black holes in his lip, a flood of black left his eyes. He tried his very best to hug his mother, cursing as his arms went through her. In the end he just wrapped his arms around her in a vague approximation.

Minato smiled reassuringly. "Yes...He's fine. I hid him somewhere safe."

"Thank goodness..." Kushina panted a bit. "...Minato...stop him...stop the nine-tails...they're headed for the village..."

Minato slightly turned his head, glaring darkly at the masked man. He, Kushina and Naruto then disappeared in a flash.

* * *

Naruto saw his surroundings instantaneously shift to a safe house and reflexively let go.

"Why...?" Kushina whispered.

"Never mind why...Just stay with Naruto." Minato's voice was quiet, and he gently carried his wife to a large bed, laying her beside a sleeping baby.

"...Naruto..." his mother's voice shook a little as she brought the small body close. Naruto felt a stabbing pain in his heart as he stared through teary eyes.

Behind him, his father clutched his fists so hard they cracked. He flung open a closet, grabbing a familiar white cloak.

Hearing the noise behind her, Kushina softly spoke. "Minato...Thank you...Good luck..."  
Naruto watched as his father's flame themed cloak waved like a real fire as the man pulled it on in one swift motion.

"I'll be back before you know it."

The demon somehow sensed what Minato was about to do and thoughtlessly tried to grab him, his arm phasing right through. Father and son disappeared in a flash.

* * *

Above the fourth hokage's head on the monument, Minato appeared on top of a carved stone spike. Naruto, who appeared beside him, floundered a bit in midair before regaining his balance in midair. They both saw a giant fox rampaging about Konoha. Its tails flung wildly about, crushing and sweeping buildings away as if they were building blocks. The kyuubi swung its arms over and over wildly as if swatting something in the air, its mindless swings sometimes scoring deep gashes into the city.

 ** _'YES... SCREAM...DIE.'_** The little boy grinned vindictively as he watched, relishing the sound of tumultuous screams echoing from below the hokage monument.

All of the sudden, the fox stilled completely, and it mechanically twisted its body, seemingly in Minato's direction.

"So you've taken notice of me."

The fox opened its maw wide, particles gathering into the shape of a giant black ball. Minato ran through handseals, eyes narrowed.

"You won't get your way here!"

The Kyuubi fired the ball when it grew to be the size of its torso. It flew in a straight line with tremendous force, crushing every part of Konoha in its way, leaving flattened ground in its wake. It suddenly stopped completely before the Hokage Monument. Giant black lines made of complex symbols extended in front of it, and the ball slowly sank into them, sucking into reality, taking the seal lines with it.

Minato flipped up both hands, a tri-pronged kunai between them. Elsewhere, far beyond Konoha past several mountains, a loud boom shook the earth, a huge dome of expanding blue light exploding into existence. It extended far higher than the mountains, enveloping a few, and dissipated into nothing.

Naruto stared in awe at his father, whose serious eyes never left the Kyuubi. Naruto's fur stood on end and he noticed the masked man noiselessly swirl into existence behind Minato's back, reaching out to grab him. Naruto shouted out in fear and anger to warn him, disregarding the fact no one could perceive him.

"...!" Minato spun around, stabbing his kunai at the masked man's head. It phased harmlessly through, and the masked man grabbed Minato's arm.

"You will face me...and we're done." Came his casual tone, as everything seemed to be sucked in around his mask. Naruto desperately tried to reach his father, and succeeded. They disappeared in the next instant.

* * *

Minato crash-landed on the ground in the woods, several of his kunai scattered all over the place. Naruto looked on in worry as the fourth hokage pushed himself up.

"What was that jutsu?...I slipped right through him and he...tried to drag me in..."

A few meters ahead, space swirled, announcing the masked man's arrival.

In the eye hole, a red pinwheel eye narrowed in amusement. "I won't let you get away."

"...Space-time techniques...that's how you moved her away so quickly..." Minato intently scrutinized his enemy as he carefully stood up. "...Slipped through a top secret barrier...knowledge of nine-tailed seal...tamed it...sharingan..."

"Are you Uchiha Madara?"

The masked man pulled his hood down, exposing spiky black hair.

"Oh...I don't know about **him."**

Minato furrowed his brow. "...On second thought, it doesn't matter who you are. But why have you attacked the leaf?"

The masked man tilted his head nonchalantly, a connected chain falling from his sleeves. "I could say I did it on a whim, or that I planned it, or that it's war, or that it's for peace..." He replied cryptically.

Minato held his kunai and both men got into fighting stances.

"Now that I have freed the nine-tails, you people have no hope left!" The masked man rushed forward. Minato stepped in a burst of speed, his body passing through his enemy's. The masked man pulled his arms, the chain wrapping around Minato, who quickly teleported away to another one of his kunai. Minato seemed to think of an idea in a split second, turning to rush the masked man who did the same. In one hand, Minato formed a spinning blue orb, and in the other he threw his kunai when the two were just feet away. The kunai phased through the masked man's head, and he reached for Minato, his hand nearly cuffing the cloak. Minato flashed away to the kunai and grabbed it, his body directly above the masked man's.

"That was Hiraishin level two."

The Yondaime twisted his body, smashing the blue ball down on the masked man, fracturing the ground from the force. Chunks of earth flew up in all directions, and Minato allowed the orb to dissipate, placing his hand in the briefest moment, leaving a black marking on the mask man's shredded and bloody back, which exposed a few ribs from the torn flesh.

The masked man, cloak torn and mask slightly cracked, jumped away despite his injuries. A candle-wax substance seemed to be dripping off his tattered cloak. He clutched at his right arm, which seemed to be melting, before falling off entirely, leaving him to force his bloody left arm to his right shoulder. Naruto sneered at the sorry sight.

From the crater, Minato slowly stood up, surveying the his injured foe. He suddenly vanished, reappearing in front of the masked man and stabbing his chest with his kunai. He placed his other palm on the masked man's stomach, forming a black symbol.

"A contract seal?"

"With this, the nine-tails is no longer in your control!" Minato said.

The masked man laughed and space spun around his mask, forcing Minato jumped back.

"I must hand it to the fourth hokage. You wounded me and wrestled the fox from my grasp in one move. But someday it will be mine again."

The man's form slowly was slowly sucked in, and he left behind a parting remark. "...The fox, and this whole world, will bow to my will. Many doors are still left open to me."

Naruto screamed in rage as the masked man got away, while his father silently stared at the spot he used to be. Almost like a sixth sense, one of youkai's tails made contact to his father's body just in time as they both disappeared in the next instant.

* * *

Atop the fourth head on the Hokage Monument, father and son appeared, and Naruto made sure to keep a tail on his father's person on all times.

Minato gazed about the destruction, and spotted the fox, its eyes a now slitted orange, outside konoha's wall, particles gathering in front of it's gaping maw.

"...This is awful..."

 _'No way! This is awesome!'_ Naruto grinned maliciously.

He saw his father run through several signs, hands blurred.

"Summoning jutsu!"

A giant toad smoking a pipe appeared up high in the air, falling down and crushing the fox into the ground, pinning it, causing the small black ball it was forming to scatter into the air. Minato quickly flashed on top of it, muttering to himself.

"...the whole world to his will...Sorry Kushina..."

Minato then yelled loudly to be heard above the kyuubi's angry roars.

"Hold down the fox for just a minute!"

"Look, I may be big, but I'm not a miracle worker!" The toad rumbled in a guttural voice.

"I just need time to gather enough chakra to take him out of here!"

The kyuubi began gathering particles again, the air giving out a distinctive hum. After a few tense seconds as the toad continued to grapple the bigger fox, Minato sucked in a breath and disappeared with the fox and Naruto.

* * *

The fox's weight immediately crushed the safe house. Naruto's spiral eyes spun wildly and everything slowed down. Wood chips slowly rose in the air, and Naruto saw his father slowly scoop up his mother and the baby him, before they all flashed out.

They reappeared in the edge of the forest, a cloud of dust behind them from the Kyuubi's landing.

Minato's breathing was a lot heavier as he struggled to clasp his hands together. "..Gotta put up a barrier.."

Kushina's next words shattered his weak concentration. "...I can still do it Minato..."

Golden spiked chains shot out her back and buried themselves in the ground, shooting up elsewhere in all directions, casting a giant dome of chains. A multitude of chains then descended, tightly wrapping around the Kyuubi. The fox quickly opened its maw, to which nothing happened, and then roared in frustration as it struggled against its binds.

Kushina's arms trembled as she tried to support her body, blood dripping from the corners of her mouth as she panted. Naruto's breathing grew faster and faster as he hyperventilated, black tears leaking through wide eyes.

"Kushina!" Minato panicked.

The baby, perhaps from all the noise, woke up and began crying loudly.

"Sorry Naruto...I didn't...mean to wake you up..."

The little youkai stared at his baby self, enraged, as he heard his mother's weak voice.  
 _'_ Mom... ** _SHUT_ _UP ME! SHUT UP SHUT UP WHY WON'T I FUCKING SHUT UP'_**

He immediately ceased his outburst, containing the raw emotion inside, as he heard his father speak in mute shock.

"Kushina...you..."

The red haired lady smiled back in lidded eyes. "I'll drag the kyuubi...back...and die with it inside me..."

 ** _'No.'_**

"...that'll...prevent it from coming back...from a while...It's the only way to save you both...with the little bit of chakra I have left."

 ** _'Mom NO'_** Naruto fell to his knees in anguish.

"...Thank you for everything you've done for me..."

Minato sharply drew in his breath. "Kushina...You made me into your husband...You made me into the fourth hokage...You made me into this boy's father!...And I..."

"Minato, don't give me that look!" Kushina tried her best to sound chipper. "I'm..I'm happy...Happy that you loved me...Happy that it's...our son's birthday."

The Yondaime's expression crumbled. Black flowed harder from Naruto's eyes, with whimpering noises in his throat. The baby him had blissfully fallen back to sleep, unknowing of his mother's words.

"...If I try to imagine surviving...and the three of us...living together...I can't think of anything...beyond 'I'd be so happy.'"

Tears flowed down the fourth hokage's frozen face as Kushina softly continued. Inside Naruto's chest, his heart beat faster and faster, black liquid leaking from the organ.

"...If I had any regrets...It would be that I won't see Naruto grow up."

 _'I will grow up, and **I will see mom again.'**_ the little boy swore in his heart to do whatever it takes.

Minato stared down at his wailing infant son before coming to a decision.

"Kushina...You don't need to take the fox down with you. We can use our last bit of chakra for you to see Naruto one more time!"

"...Huh?"

"I'll seal the last of your chakra in Naruto with an eight trigrams seal. Then I'll lead the kyuubi away with a seal only a non-jinchuriki like me can use, the Reaper Death Seal!"

Kushina was horrified. "But that...the user will be-"

 _'Will be what? Will be what?'_ Naruto had a sinking feeling in his chest.

"-But I'll only be able to seal half the fox's power. I can't let the kyuubi be revived without a jinchuriki and destroy the balance of tailed beasts. With the reaper death seal, I can permanently seal half the fox's power along with myself."

Minato looked down at the baby with determination in his eyes. "I'll seal the remaining half inside Naruto as well!"

Naruto widened his eyes in disbelief as he realized it was his father that was responsible for the fox being inside of him, as well as all the suffering he's endured because of it. _'Balance of the tailed beasts? What is hell is that?...Is it...Is it really something that was worth me?'_ The little boy's voice shook.

Kushina blinked in disbelief, her face full of disapproval.

"I know what you want to say...But remember the prophecy about the world upheaval and the calamity that would follow."-The Yondaime's eyes glinted-"Tonight I confirmed two things. The first is the masked man, the one who attacked you...He is the harbinger of that disaster!"

His next words were filled with conviction. "Naruto will be the one to stop him! He is the jinchuriki who will blaze the trail to our future...I just...know it."

The little boy tried to make sense of his father's words, but didn't really understand much. What he did understand was hatred, the desire to make that masked man **suffer.**

 _'I will make him pay... **I will make him scream**... **.Destroy his dream...Crush him...'**_ The little boy was shrouded in a dark aura, a vengeful promise on his face.

"But Minato..." Kushina began, but it was too late. The fourth hokage ran through a series of handseals in one second.

"Have a little faith! He is our son after all!"

A cloud emerged from his back, eventually taking the shape of a translucent specter with a demonic visage. It towered over Minato, possessing long, shaggy white hair, from which two red horns protruded, and purple-colored skin. It was draped in large white garments and carried a set of prayer beads, a tantō in its mouth.

Two strands of the mane of hair punctured into Minato, causing him to wince. It dragged out a featureless human shaped mass of blue energy from the fourth hokage's back, yet leaving no signs of a wound.

The blue energy continued to leak out of Minato to the binded human figure while Naruto looked on, trying hard to figure things out. _'What is that? Could that be the cost?'_

"After I finish the reaper death seal I'll place your remaining chakra into Naruto as well. You'll meet a grown-up Naruto sooner than you think...the time will come when he'll attempt to take control of the fox's power...and I want you there to help him."

 _'...I...the fox...I...ate him?...I ate him...but..she didn't...'_ Naruto's thoughts took a different turn as he gazed at his dying mother. _'Maybe...she d-died...before...they could...'_ Naruto's face contorted with grief.

Kushina faltered one second, but reverted back to displeasure. "He's our son! I don't want him to bear such a heavy burden all on his own!"

 _'...Mom...'_ the little boy sniffled.

"And also, why use the reaper death seal?"-her labored breaths grew as she protested-"There's no reason for you to die just so I can meet him for a few minutes when he's older!"

Kushina's eyes welled with tears. "I wanted you to be there for him...I wanted you to raise him!...Why... Why should Naruto be sacrificed to save the village...the country...and for that stupid balance...Why are you sacrificing yourself for me?!"

She looked up at her husband, energy spent in her outburst.

Minato stood resolutely. "Turning your back, on the village, is just as bad as abandoning a child...Your homeland was destroyed, so you of all people should know...the pain of growing up without a home of your own."

 _' **NO...Konoha was never my home...'**_ Naruto seethed.

"...and you know we are a family of shinobi..." Minato finished.

 ** _'...I refuse to be one of THEM...'_**

"Besides, even if I lived I could never be a substitute for you." Minato smiled. "Even though you won't have much time with him, there are some things only you as his mother can tell Naruto..."

The fourth hokage turned to the kyuubi's direction.

"As for me...dying to make a better life for his son...that's the stuff you let the father handle."

Naruto felt both anger and sadness at this, and tugged at his heart, his body folding in. _'...I...see..."_

"Reaper death seal!" Minato shouted.

The Shinigami merely floated in the air, impassively watching events unfold. A translucent hand burst through Minato's chest, ripping through his flak jacket. It extended its reach, phasing into the Kyuubi, which let out a ground-shaking roar as the hand retracted, pulling with it a fox-shaped mass of bright yellow energy, just as large as the giant fox itself. The hand condensed it in its fist and retracted into Minato's chest, leaving a spiral seal in its place. Minato shook uncontrollably as his body seemed to steam for a short while. The blue energy flowing from his back became a bright orange-white color.

The fox shrunk to half its size, its fur changing to a dark brown color. The chains tightened in order to accommodate this difference. The fourth hokage placed his palm on the ground, a ceremonial pedestal appearing before him, surrounded by lit candles.

Minato slowly picked up the sleeping baby, and hobbled over to the altar, gently placing the infant upon it. "...Now for...the eight trigrams seal..." The fourth hokage's voice was completely drained.

Kushina suddenly doubled over in a coughing fit, blood spattering all over. The chains on the fox slipped and fell off, and the kyuubi craftily made not a sound, eyes trained on the small figures in his vision.

"Kushina, stay with me!" Minato tried to run to the red-haired woman.

The Kyuubi chose this moment to thrust its arm forward, a single giant claws heading straight towards the baby. Both Minato and Kushina seemed to instinctively notice, as they both summoned up strength neither possessed, throwing themselves towards baby Naruto.

 _ **Splurch**_

Naruto stared unblinkingly, paralyzed as blood flew everywhere, some harmlessly passing through him. His mother and father hung in the air, impaled through the chest by the tip of a giant claw. The Kyuubi tried to use its full strength, when all of a sudden the loose chains restrengthened again, restricting its movement entirely. Naruto saw his parents skid a little forward from the momentum before coming to a stop, the tip of the bloody claw just a few inches from the baby, drops of blood dripping onto the sleeping infant.

The little boy stood shellshocked, his white tails falling limply, black rivers of tears running unconsciously down his face as he saw blood red rapidly spreading on his parents' clothes, the size of the giant claw nearly ripping them in half. The crack in his mind spread throughout the wall of the sewer, pieces of metal falling into the water.

Kushina, whose hands were firmly grasping the claw, let them fall loosely at her sides. "...If the father can do this job...the mother should be even better...right?"

She sighed weakly through a mouth full of blood. "...You win...first argument...you've ever won...I guess...you're really serious..."

"...Thank you, Kushina..." The fourth hokage's hands quivered slightly as he slowly made a few hand signs.

A human-sized toad popped in beside them with a cloud of smoke. It gaped at the scene. "AAAH! The nine-tails! Fourth! What the hell happened!"

"...Gamatora...I'm trusting you with the key to the seal...you know what to do..."

The toad seemed to immediately understand, and it's abdomen shot upwards, unraveling into a scroll. It waddled awkwardly forward, and Minato placed a shaky hand on the scroll, a complex diagram appearing on it. The toad promptly rolled itself up, and gave a respectful salute.

"Got it!...Good...Goodbye fourth..."

It croaked, clasping its hands together, disappearing in a poof of smoke.

"...It's time for me to go, Kushina...I'm going to start the eight trigrams seal...we don't have much time...If you have anything left to say to Naruto..."

 _ **'I'll treasure your words forever mom...'**_ Naruto vowed, his body faintly trembling. Deep inside, he heard a voice softly crying, filled with sorrow.

His mother looked at the sleeping, tranquil baby tenderly. "...Naruto...Don't be a fussy eater...eat your vegetables...eat lots and grow up to be a big boy!"

 ** _'I will...'_**

"...Take your bath every day and stay warm...Also, don't stay up late. You need lots of sleep."

 _'_ _ _I'll try to take baths...but.._ ** _._ I...I don't think I can sleep anymore...' **_

"...Make friends...it doesn't matter how many...Just make sure they're real friends...people you can really trust...even a few is enough!"

 _ **'...People I can trust...only you and dad...'**_

"And study your ninjutsu...I was never really good at it, maybe you will be...Everyone has things they're good at and things they're not...Don't feel bad if you can't do it all..."

 _ **'I will be good at it...No I'll be the best!'**_

"Make sure you listen to teachers...and remember to avoid the three vices of shinobi..Don't borrow money if you can help it...Save what you earn from missions...and no alcohol until you're twenty, even then, too much can ruin your health..."

 _'...I won't be a ninja... **I won't**...'_

"...And as for women...Well, I'm a woman so I don't know what to say, but there are only men and women in this world, and you'll want a girlfriend someday...just try not to pick a weird one..."

The little boy was a bit puzzled at this. _'A girl...friend? Don't worry mom, I'll make some.'_

"...Try to find someone like me..."

 _'Someone like...But there's no one as awesome as you, mom...'_

"...And finally, watch out for Jiraiya!"

Behind her, Minato gave out a choked cough, trying not to laugh.

Kushina's eyes welled in tears. "...Naruto...You're going to experience a lot of pain and suffering...But remember who you are!...Find a goal...a dream..."

 _'A goal? **I want power...** Power so this can never happen again...power to meet you again...power...'_

Kushina's voice faltered, breath ragged-"...There's...There's so much more I want to say...to teach you about...I want to say with you...I love you..."

 _'I love you too mom...'_ Naruto's frozen expression shifts as he begins whimpering and sniffling.

"...Minato...I'm sorry...I took all our time..."

"It's ok." The fourth hokage shifted his body a little, making squelching sounds from his wound as he got a look at the sleeping baby.

"Naruto, this is your dad. Listen to your motor-mouth mother." He teased.

 ** _'...Yes...'_**

"...Eight trigrams seal..."

The Shinigami grabbed the blade in its mouth and severed the bright orange-white mass of energy trapped in its hair from Minato, who immediately slumped forward, motionless. The specter then opened its mouth, swallowing the mass in, and disappeared. Meanwhile the Kyuubi, who still struggled to the very end, condensed in a vague shape of black, unpinning Minato and Kushina, whose bodies fell to the floor. The black mass flew towards the baby, disappearing into its stomach, leaving behind the familiar swirl symbol Naruto always saw on his own stomach. The numerous chains dispersed into golden light before fading away entirely.

All was quiet now, and only the soft chirping of cicadas could be heard, while the baby peacefully slumbered on, Naruto stared brokenly at his parent's lifeless bodies. He was gripped with despair, and sank to his knees.

 _'...I should have never been born... **If I didn't exist**...this wouldn't-'  
_

Everything spun once more but Naruto, filled with self-hatred, didn't care.

* * *

The little boy found himself in a familiar sewer, and realized it looked exactly like his mindscape, except the water was only about an inch deep. The baby lied there beside him on the wet ground, still asleep. Naruto looked ahead and saw the same huge gate, with the giant dark-brown fox on the other side. Its lips were pulled back in a snarl, and Naruto could see holding a small figure in its grasp. Naruto's grieving eyes widened as he saw it to be his mother, who was gasping for breath.

The kyuubi roared. **"CURSE YOU PUNY HUMANS, I WAS FINALLY FREE. HOW DARE YOU SPLIT ME INTO YIN AND PLACE ME IN THIS POWERLESS BEING. WELL, I WON'T LET _YOU_** ** **HELP YOUR TINY WHELP.** "**

It crushed its fist, causing Kushina to evaporate in a wisp of blue energy.

 _ **'NO!'**_ Naruto screamed, his misery turning to rage.

 **"Hmph, they want my chakra? Those Ningens..."** The giant fox snorted, now a bit calmer, shifting its gaze to the sleeping baby.

 **"I can't kill you without mutual destruction...what to do..."** A cunning glint appeared in its eyes.

 ** **"H** mmm...yes...Have my chakra whelp! Take it! Suffer!"**

The Kyuubi laughed viciously, a single dark brown tail, emanating a black flame-like aura, passing unhindered through the wide bars and slamming down on the baby.

Naruto's emotions surpassed its limits, his body convulsing violently as he let out a wordless scream, filled with loneliness, grief, and rage. It embodied a little boy who realized he lost the most precious things in his life, without knowing he ever had them. He felt endless hatred for the leaf, for the Kyuubi, and especially that **masked** **man.** The dark presence inside him seemed to echo his feelings, except with somehow much more hate and vengeance.

In his mind, the cracks on the walls deepened as the sewer quaked, the water below churning wildly as everything shook. The scene of the Kyuubi's mad laughter vanished, leaving him alone in his mindscape. It shattered like glass, leaving Naruto surrounded by complete darkness. The only remaining light shone from the giant empty cage that once housed the Kyuubi. It stood completely intact, like a beacon in the night.

How much time passed, Naruto didn't know. The little boy had released all of his pent up emotions, and was left with emptiness. Numbly, he made his way to the cage, stepping through the wide bars onto the featureless flat yellow ground.

"...I...I'm alone..." The little boy said listlessly, eyes dull. Beyond the suffering he experienced in his short life whenever he came in contact with people, mostly his recent horrific experiences at the hands of the root, Naruto grew to always desire solitude. Now, the little orphan boy had discovered love for the first time, his parents' love, and his heart ached over their deaths.

 **"...I wouldn't say that..."** A dark voice said behind him. Naruto spun around, on guard, but became confused at what he saw. A figure stepped into the cage from the darkness, looking almost exactly like him. He wore the same black outfit Naruto picked up, had the same height, face, with two fox ears on his head and ten long tails waving behind him. However, where Naruto's hair and fox-like traits were white, his was black. His eyes, which had black sclera, held red spirals that encompassed the whole of both eyes.

Naruto noticed the other boy's cracked smile and deep tear trails below his eyes, as if he was recently crying.

"...Who are you...?"

 **"...You've felt me before...I am your darkness...deep inside your heart...My name is Yami..."**

Naruto understood that he was that dark presence he had felt before. A few stray black tears leaked from the corners of his eyes as he fully realized who the other boy was. Naruto swiftly ran up and hugged Yami, who looked confused.

"...So I was never alone...thank you for warning me whenever...and with the fox...without you I'd have...-" The rest came out incoherently as the little boy broke down over Yami's shoulder, completely at his most vulnerable moment.

Yami awkwardly patted his back. **"...Errr...Yeah...Your welcome..."**

The two children stayed that way for a while as Yami waited for Naruto to calm down.

* * *

 **AN:** **Review/Fav/Follow pls :/ (Or all three)**


	3. Vengeful Exodus

Naruto's emotions eventually subsided and he stepped back, taking a closer look at his darkness, curiosity already bubbling inside and filling him with questions.

"You said you're my darkness right? Like whenever...I feel...bad?"

 **"That's...basically right yeah."**

The white youkai then began with a bit of trepidation. "I always felt you so deep inside, like in a far and unreachable place...-"

 **"-And you're wondering why I am appearing before you now?"** Yami interjected.

Naruto blinked, expression a bit puzzled. "How did you know that?"

His darkness looked faintly amused. **"I'm a part of your subconscious. Picture me as a part of your inner self, one that affects your thoughts and feelings, which means I can in turn read them."  
**

 **'But that doesn't mean you can read mine...'** Yami thought to himself, while keeping his face composed.

 **"To answer your original question...Well...to start off, I always wanted to help you, your enemies were mine. We have hatred for the same things, and share the same goal as well. But...it's just I couldn't get to you before...I always couldn't, and I didn't think it would be a good idea to either."**

At Naruto's incredulous look, Yami sighed.

 **"It's a bit of a long explanation. It all starts with the fact that whenever your negative emotions start getting out of control...your mind, you know, the sewer, gets a bit...unstable. At those moments I feel distance between us lessen, but I kind of was afraid of what might happen to you if your mind, mindscape, whatever, broke in order for us to meet. Would you disappear? Become a vegetable? Or would you die?** ** **Now I see that it didn't really matter as long as this seal existed.** But at those times I just sucked away those dark emotions, distancing us again, which coincidentally made me stronger each time." ** The little black-haired boy finished with a shrug.

 **"The turning point was when the fox gave us these."-** Yami gestured to his fox-ears and tails.- **"Something changed, and I believe you felt it too..."**

Naruto nodded, remembering his transformation.

 **"The _Kyuubi_ "-**Yami hatefully growled out the fox's title- **"said we became youkai or some shit. Anyway, all I know is I got so close to you, that I could say stuff and you could hear me, but not close enough where I could appear before you. I still absorbed your dark emotions to preserve your mind though, but when you blacked out, you know, saw red, you were taken over by mindless primal instinct or something. It was really awesome, and that was when I actually felt I could control your body. Not that I wanted to though, 'cause you were really ripping and eatin' them all."**

Yami winked at Naruto, who smiled uncomfortably at the memory. It wasn't that he regretted what had happened, in fact, he relished it. It was just the fact that he couldn't remember most of his rampage that unsettled him.

 **"When you woke up, I reverted back to the close distance we had after the transformation. The gap between us disappeared entirely when we saw them...you know..."**

Yami trailed off, becoming despondent. Naruto immediately realized what he was referring to, his own mood dropping as well.

 **"I'm just pure dark man. Stuff like hatred, pain, and fear only make me stronger, but that doesn't mean I have to like it when it affects us directly.** **Whenever you...no _we_ were hurt, I could only swear vengeance, wishing I could do something. ********We've only had hate our entire life.**** But this...love...it made me feel...different...words just can't describe it..." **

The black youkai meaningfully looked at Naruto through tearful eyes. **"...When they...d-died...such excruciating pain...My desire for vengeance overflowed, reaching far higher than I ever felt before...and I lost it."**

 **"Needless to say, the sewer broke and...here I am."**

A morose silence descended upon the two of them for a few moments.

After forcing down his sadness, Naruto asked.

"...Do you know anything about those visions then?"

 **"I have somewhat of a good idea...When we uhhh 'eat' people, we grow stronger, and get all their memories and experiences, their entire lives! Although it looks like you for some reason can't really see all of it. I think it's that you...can't process like whole lifetimes worth of stuff without breaking your mind...so you just get...glimpses...?"**

Yami mused thoughtfully, and pointed at himself.

 **"I got all of it though. Every memory, including those you can't handle gets buried deep in your subconscious and pushed to me. It looks like this time, your mind just processed whatever it could before dumping the whole thing deeper inside."**

The black youkai grinned evilly.  
 **"Ohhh mannnn...Our gains today have really been huge. I expanded my vocabulary...we ate some of those fucking masked bastards...Man, you would not believe the messed up shit that goes on in this shit village...wait what am I saying, of course _you_ would. However, above all, our greatest boost was the Kyuubi** **...I can't wait to** ** **show you everything...but now might not be the best time.** "**

"Why?" Throughout Yami's explanation, Naruto had a growing sense of anticipation, wanting to see them for himself, wanting to see more of his parents.

 **"Yeah those masked people really are pitiful, they're basically slaves, they can't even say anything about themselves without blowing up. The only conceivable way to get information from them would be how we ate them..."**

Yami blinked, his expression growing a bit more urgent.

 **"Anyway that's not the point. From their memories it appears at the end of every week after cutting us open and stuff"-** Naruto's eyes narrow to slits at the mention of his torment- **"They record down what they observe and experiment with our organs and other pieces of our flesh-although you destroyed all of it in your rampage so don't worry about it-before going off to give a general verbal report to their master."**

The black youkai hatefully grits his teeth. **"Their master is that old fuck we saw before, name's Danzo, and he is one of the main people behind our suffering in this place. From what I have observed through the masked peoples' memories, he's extremely ruthless, and we did eat everybody in this underground building. It's a bad idea to stay here. What I gather is that we were out of it for quite a while and have about three hours until normal report time at midnight. Let's leave this fucking village man and find a safe place. Then I can show you."  
**

The thought of leaving this underground hideout were he had constantly suffered was instantly appealing to Naruto, until he remembered what he experienced prior to being brought here: Stares filled with disgust, disdain, and hate that followed wherever he went...the mobs...the-

Feeling all of this, Yami quickly said. **"Ok ok don't worry about all that."**

Naruto looked up at his darkness, who sported a reassuring look.

 **"The masked people we ate are part of a much larger group called Root or something, and I guess they can be considered the _best ninjas_ of this shit village. They know quite a lot of jutsus, but there's one in particular that can help us get out of here discretely. It's the called the Henge, and it does exactly what its name implies. It's effect is just an illusion though, but hopefully, as we are youkai instead of human, we'll experience something different..."**

Yami then made an awkward face, hesitantly asking. **"...Can I share control of your body?"  
**

Naruto, surprised at the request, said. "Sure."

The white youkai felt a dark pressure slowly overtake his body. Naruto, realizing that Yami was behind it, didn't resist, and the dark pressure spread out at a more comfortable pace. The little boy's split vision returned to looking up at the ceiling, and he immediately got up from the bloody and torn-up bed. Darkness pooled around him, obscuring him from sight. It dissipated, revealing a short woman with long smooth black-bluish hair and dressed in typical attire of those masked people. A cat-like mask with purple markings covered her face.

 **"HAHA! YES! This is true transformation, on the first try and none of those stupid handsigns!"** Yami triumphantly exclaimed.

Naruto felt the sensation of getting much taller than his previous runty size, and felt slightly off balance. Finding the edges of his vision slightly obscured by the mask, he tried to remove it, but found that his arms couldn't move.

 **"Woah hold on. We got to keep this mask on, for disguise purposes. Apparently that old monkey shithead has a way to view everything in the village through a crystal ball or something to that effect, so strolling as ourselves isn't the best idea. Plus, when we sneak around other ninjas won't be as suspicious towards us. Sorry if it feels a little awkward to move around, but this body is the closest to our stature out of those masked bastards we ate, being only about two feet taller."**

Yami's voice grew a little quieter.

 **"...Turn left out this room. Make a right after passing three corridors and the exit is there. I have to focus on maintaining this form, so lead on man..."**

Naruto walked a little rigidly through the hallways, sandals splashing in the black-red liquid. Slowly, he got used to this different body, his stride becoming more natural.

He rounded a corner, seeing a beaten up steel door filled with dents and deep claw-marks with tiny pieces of wet shredded paper on it, strange black markings on the visible scraps.

 **"This is it."** Yami stared at the black stains on the door.

 **"Shit, the only loose end here would be all this black stuff you leaked out, who knows what kind of crap they could cook up with this..."**

 _'Huh, so this black stuff was from me.'  
_ Naruto already had an inkling of this, vaguely remembering bits and pieces of the black fog during his rampage, and how it could...

A sudden tug in his gut and the black liquid on the door suddenly flew straight at him. Naruto reflexively stepped back but felt something warm hit him from behind. Before he could turn around and look, the black liquid hit him full on, but surprisingly didn't splash against him, somehow going inside him as if his clothing and skin didn't exist.

 _'It's...also warm.'_

Naruto quickly turned around and saw a giant vortex of black fluid heading straight into him. It extended down the long hallway, and Naruto could see smaller streams exiting other rooms down the aisle. Despite the size and rushing sounds it produced, Naruto didn't feel himself budge an inch, as if the vortex produced no force whatsoever.

Yami could only stare blankly.

 **"What...Naruto what did you do...?"**

 _'I don't know? I...just thought about the whole black fog thing and-'  
_

 **"-Yeah I know that."  
**

The whole process took only a few seconds, and the grey flak jacket to Naruto's anbu disguise rippled as the last of the black fluid disappeared through it. With the black color gone, the corridor was left in a pure bloody shade of red.

 **"Well it looks like there are other things we can now do as youkai, but that should be explored later when we're far away from here. Lead on, Naruto!"**

Yami said, keeping what just happened in the back of his thoughts. Naruto then turned back and pushed the big door open, noting that it took little effort. He found himself in an abandoned alley, the other side of the door matching the unremarkable wooden texture. Naruto breathed deeply, taking in the fresh night air, before vaulting onto the roof of the building ahead of him.

He had fallen into some sort of trance, following a very faint familiar scent. Beneath the cat-mask, part of the woman's face, particularly the nose, reverted to Naruto's original appearance, sprouting whiskers.

 **"Hey what the heck are you doin- oh..."-** Yami focused a bit of his attention and comprehended Naruto's intentions- **"...Listen, looking for her...we both know she's dead...it's pointle-...oh whatever."** Yami's voice choked and he didn't speak further.

There were only a few people out on the streets, but with his whole life of trying to avoid others, Naruto didn't draw their attention. The disguised youkai leapt about the rooftops in a blur, practically invisible in the night.

Naruto continued moving past the residential districts, senselessly traversing several kilometers, heading straight to the more forested areas of Konoha. On the way there, he saw a few of those masked bastards, who merely gave him a passing glance, nothing more.

The smell grew stronger, until Naruto walked straight into a clearing between the trees with a small unmarked grave. Mindlessly, his hands dug through the earth, becoming claws. He tore through the ground, spraying himself with dirt, and eventually hit something hard. After a few more a seconds, it was revealed to be a simple wooden coffin.

Naruto snapped out of his trance at that point, and recognized the scent as that of his mother's. He, with strength he didn't know he possessed, ripped open the coffin, flipping the cover out of the hole and hitting a tree with a thunk.

The decaying corpse of Uzumaki Kushina laid inside, her once bright red hair a frayed brown, with sunken cheeks, swelled purple veins covering her blackened skin. There was a giant hole in her torso, and the body lied stiffly, with parts of the clothing she died in already disintegrated.

Yami immediately lost his concentration, and the disguise fell away. Naruto stood over the corpse with a frozen expression, tears of black running down his cheeks.

 _'So this is what death means...Mom, I'm so sorry...'_

Naruto felt both grief, feeling guilty for his existence, and hatred for his enemies, but this time his grief took precedence. Still covered in dirt, he hugged the rotten body of his mother, almost uncaring of everything else in the world in the face of his most precious person. He didn't shiver from the cold contact, nor from the coarseness of the dead skin. His chest clenched painfully as he stared at the thick circular hole in her chest, giving a view of her blackened innards, visible shards of broken rib bones jutting out inside. He simply lied there like that, hiccuping while black flowed ceaselessly, remembering painful memories. After a few moments, a black fog emanated from his body, covering both him and Kushina. It quickly dissolved, leaving Naruto silently crying in the shallow hole he dug.

Yami clenched his fists, his own face full of grief as well. **"...I know...But we've got to get out of here, we're almost out of time...We will have our revenge, _I swear it..._ "**

It wasn't as if Yami didn't feel the same way, but he was a bit more controlled. Negative emotions like grief and hatred were his very nature after all, making Yami somewhat more clearheaded in this situation.

Naruto sedately got up, and Yami calculated aloud that heading west would be the shortest way out of Konoha. After the disguise was reapplied, the little boy continued on.

He eventually broke through the trees to a large clearing. In the middle of it, with quite a distance to the trees in every direction, was a structure he recognized as a familiar clan compound, with distant figures patrolling atop the walls. Naruto's eyes transformed back to those spinning spirals and he made them out to be some of those white-eyed people. The big entrance doors were visible, with two characters above it spelling Hyuga. Overall, it was pretty secluded like he remembered it to be, just like the complex Mito and Kushina lived in, if a little smaller.

The bright moon hung up high in the night sky, casting shadows from the tall walls. The quietness of the night was broken as Naruto heard a soft and feeble cry. His fox-ears sprouted, hidden behind the ears on top of the mask, he pinpointed the source to the big doors of the Hyuga compound's entrance. His spiral eyes easily saw into the dark, distantly spotting the curled up form of a small child with dark blue hair wearing a light grey training outfit, face covered by both arms. Drops of blood formed a trail on the ground, starting from the doors to the child's position. The white-eyed people on top of the walls would glance down impassively once in a while, before ignoring her and performing sweeping gazes of the area.

He found the crying voice to be somewhat familiar, and remembered that he once heard it before, recognizing the kid as that little white-eyed girl. Curious, he leapt towards her. Yami read his subconscious intentions and was uncaring, desiring only to leave and plan for their revenge in their pursuit of power.

 **"Wait I don't think this is a good idea."** Yami said, yet didn't make any move, busy being caught up holding the transformation together. **"We only met her a few times. Altogether, you helped her from bullies or whatever, and she just gave you ointment that we never used. It's not a very fair trade for us, and it still means we don't owe her shit. We should get a move on already."**

Naruto was unresponsive, so Yami could only divert some of his attention to the figures atop the walls, to which he noticed were out of earshot with his regular ears. Those Hyuga people spotted the Naruto's tiny distant figure under root anbu disguise, seemed to give him a once-over, before noticing where he was heading. As they saw him stop next to the girl, they overlooked him entirely, and Naruto's fox ears distantly even picked up one of them saying:

"It's one of _those_ anbu to dispose the trash."

Yami's eyes spun angrily as he ran through the possible meanings for that line, having heard quite a few similar things like that said to him, and changed his mind. Naruto was more curious than angry, remembering how before she was pulled away from him in their last meeting by a white-eyed person from her clan, who seemed to be some sort of servant and worried for her well-being. Now the little youkai saw the same man on top of the compound walls, deliberately avoiding his gaze from their direction.

 _'Did they kick her out or something?'_

 **"It looks that way. From what I remember, Hinata is rather piddly and weak, or at least her personality is. The memories I saw show people from Root culling their own weak, this looks to be a similar thing."  
**

 _'Cull? What does that mean?'  
_

 **"Means kill. I know she isn't dead, but I have a strong suspicion that they did something to her that fits their own definition of 'killing' a clan member."** Yami explained, already acclimated with the root's knowledge of the Hyuga clan.

Naruto thought back of when he was pitifully weak, and how his parents died for him. Hatred aside, his disgust in the Hyuga clan deepened.

 **"Hey, our family is not reflective of every family Naruto..."** Yami said, a mixture of pride and sadness in his voice.

 _'...Right.'_

Naruto bent down next to the crying girl, greeting in his normal voice.

"Hey Hinata."

As he said this, he narrowed his eyes, noticing the flecks of blood covering her sleeves. The little girl stiffened, seemingly recognizing his voice, but didn't raise her head from its buried position in her arms.

"...Naruto, is that you?" She quietly asked.

"Yes. So why are you here all alone at night? I'd expect this from me, not you..."

"I...I..." Hinata wrapped her arms tighter around her head, and Naruto spotted drops of red on the exposed parts of her face.

Yami put that clue together with what he knew. **"I _see..._ Haha oh man I'm terrible." **The little black youkai couldn't help but chuckle after his half-assed attempt at a pun.

 _'What do you mean?'_ Naruto thought, a bit put off, not getting it.

 **"You'll understand in a second, just ask her to show you her face."** Yami cryptically replied.

Remembering his mother's worry and the fact he didn't really hate Hinata, Naruto tried to phrase it a bit differently, but didn't really know how, and ultimately ended up bluntly repeating Yami.

"And also, your face is bleeding. Can I...see it...?"

Hinata trembled a bit, slowly uncrossed her arms, and Naruto's eyes widened while Yami was silent, having already expected it. The youkai caught a glimpse of two bloody holes where her eyes would be, filled with both fresh and dark crusted blood. Her eyelids closed shut, but red continued to leak down her cheeks, which were caked in dried blood.

She began crying again, and struggled to speak. "..They...my eyes...now I c-can't go back..."

 **"Yeah...the Hyuga clan have a special bloodline through the eyes, and kind of hold them as the most important thing to them or something stupid like that...so losing them equates to death I guess."**

Yami commented.

Naruto had sort of a kindred feeling.

 _'She's...like me.'_ He looked at the bloody tears running nonstop down her face.

 **"Ok, I can see how you can think that, but I really still believe we should-"**

 _'-She doesn't look to good. Yami, is there any way to help?'_ Naruto interrupted, eyes only on Hinata, whose breathing grew shallower and shallower.

 **"Haaaah...fine...Hmm...Those root people have nothing to completely regrow eyes, but** ** **do know some healing techniques** though. However, if how Henge went is any indication...Well anyway let's try it!"**

Naruto's left arm rose up, a white orb forming at the palm.

"I think I can help. Hold still, and open your...eyes?"

 _'Naruto-kun will help me?'_

The very thought caused her to stop crying, and Hinata unhesitatingly opened her eye sockets. She couldn't see what was happening but had a quick intake of breath as she felt a strange warmth wash over her. After the bleeding had stopped, the Yami let the white orb fizzle out and coated Hinata with a very thin layer of black fog, which greatly startled Naruto.

 _'Wait what are you doing?!'_ He didn't want to eat her!

Yami was unperturbed. **"Calm down I'm not eating her."**

In the process of treating her, Yami's grip on the disguise slipped a bit, reverting Naruto back into his youkai body for the briefest moment. Luckily, none of the guards patrolling high up on the compound walls noticed, having already deigned to not look in their direction. Yami himself noted that they didn't have their byakugan active either. The black fog quickly faded away, revealing Hinata, who was **not** covered in her own blood.

 **"From what I learned recently, after you stop a bleeding wound, cleaning it is the next step to prevent infections."**

 _'Infections? What are-'_

 **"-I'll explain later."  
**

Yami nodded in satisfaction at the cleaned injury. Naruto was...not really queasy but just a little uncomfortable.

 **"** ** **Welp, that's the best I can do. Interestingly enough, it d** oesn't look like it did anything different than the original jutsu."**

Naruto pulled his hand back, remembering how she literally cried blood, and said.

"You're not, um, bleeding tears but I don't think its a good idea for you to cry anymore."

At this point, Yami internally realized how much time had passed, but shrugged remarking to himself alone. **'Eh. When you're in for it then you gotta see it through.'**

 **"Listen Naruto, the last step is to dress up the wound."** -A white cloth forms out of darkness in Naruto's hand- **"You know, wrapping it up."**

Meanwhile, Hinata no longer tasted the metallic tang of blood in the air, feeling the chill of the night air on her skin once more. The constantly stinging pain had all but vanished, leaving just a sense of emptiness in the space where her eyes were.

 _'How did Naruto-kun do this?'_

She thought in wonder, absentmindedly touched her cheek. Naruto suddenly grabbed her hand, pulling it away from her face.

"Hey don't touch it!"

 _Thump Thump_

Hinata's heartbeat quickened as she finally noticed how close Naruto was, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks. Naruto noticed this and thought it was from the cold, not thinking much of it. Yami decided something was off, but that now wasn't the best time to consider it, so he said nothing. The little girl felt something soft press against her face, wrapping around her head. Naruto finished tying a knot on the back of her head, brushing away some of her hair to make sure the cloth wouldn't fall loose.

"There, finished."

"Naruto-kun...thank you..."

 _'Wait-what did she just call me?'_

Naruto thought back to how Kushina used that suffix.

 _'Does that make us...friends?'_ He guessed uncertainly.

Yami's gaze at Hinata became a little strange. **"...We've only met three times...In that sort of scenario...people of the same generation, girls in particular, use it for someone they have an emotional attachment with..."**

 _'So...friends?'_

 **"Uhhhh not exactly-"**

Going through the memories, Yami saw that although those root people and the fox definitely didn't have any romance in their lives, Kushina certainly did. The little black youkai then remembered that even if he somewhat comprehended boy/girl relationships from that, Naruto only saw a sliver of her memories, much less understand that sort of thing.

 **"-Forget it. Let's just say it depends on how you feel too. Do you think you're friends?"**

 _'Yes.'-_ Not missing a beat, Naruto then said aloud-"Hinata I gotta tell you something important, but not here."

He decided to take a leaf from his father's book, scooping Hinata up bridal-style, eliciting a gasp from her. He dashed further west past compound walls, past the grassy ground of the clearing straight into another forested area of Konoha. Just as he jumped through a small thicket of trees, his fox-ears caught a chance comment by one of the guards.

"Finally...What took so long? I hope the corpse gets buried far away from here."

Both Naruto and Yami bristled internally but didn't let up the pace, disappearing into the forest. The disguised youkai continued to leap through the trees, and through the holes of the forest canopy, he saw the tall border wall in the distance. The boy's grip on Hinata unconsciously tightened, echoes of memories bursting forth as he saw just how close he was to exodus.

 _-Hey! It's the demon! Get him! Die! Kill Him! You deserve thi-_

Yami, unintentionally viewing this as well, yelled loudly in Naruto's mind, snapping him out of it.

 **"STOP"** The anbu disguise flickered for a few moments until Yami calmed down.

 **"I still have to focus, konoha ninjas exist outside the city walls too, you know. Don't do that again for now, maybe to go berserk it would be fine, but still...now is not the best time to attract attention."**

He then returned to quietly maintaining the disguise, leaving Naruto to his own thoughts.

 _'Ok, don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it-'_

The little youkai chanted quietly to himself. He looked forward at the wall, and switched his mind to anticipating what the outside world would be like.

 _'Come to think of it, wow, I can't believe I haven't thought leaving sooner.'_

His body just moved on autopilot as his mind wandered, dulled down to a lackadaisical temperament. The little boy surmised perhaps his hatred surpassed his lack of certainty in the wide world outside Konoha's walls.

 _'Though if Yami thought of it, then perhaps I secretly had this desire all along...?'_

He recalled back to the fact how both his mother and Mito had moved to Konoha from the outside world, and a smile wormed its way on his face.

 _'I can't wait.'_

Meanwhile, Yami reacted a bit differently, with cruel eagerness instead.

 **'Look out world, I'm coming!'** He thought privately to himself.

Hinata could feel the cold night air brushing past her, and heard Naruto's slightly muffled whisper.

"I hate this place...Actually, I'm surprised it took me this long to realize my hatred...I'm leaving Konoha..."

 _'Will I never see you again?'_ Hinata remembered all the times she ever glimpsed him, in the alleys, in the treeline, always alone. "Naruto-kun..."

Naruto noticed her again, despite holding her in his arms. He suddenly came to a snap decision and said.

"Oh...do you want to come with me? Let's have our own adventure Hinata!"

"Eh?"

 **"What?!"** Yami immediately protested. He calmed down quickly and thought it over. **"All right we healed her. Then dragging her with us? She's blind, and not just blind, but recently so, which means she won't be aware of her surroundings and we'll have to watch over her every step..."**

The black youkai got a little heated. **"To be honest, your new feelings, I don't get them. Things like friends, we don't need them! ALL WE NEED IS OURSELVES."**

 _'But mom said to make friends...'  
_

 **"Kgh..."** Yami flinched a bit, but Naruto wasn't done.

 _'...And what better friends to make than those you can understand?'_

Yami fell silent.

 **"Fine...After all, don't I trust you based on _my_ understanding?"**

He then flicked his view over to the small shocked girl, and noticed the faint tinge of red on her cheeks.

 **'Anyways this girl is...heh whatever...'**

Naruto continued talking aloud to Hinata, eyes looking straight ahead as the Konoha walls loomed closer and closer.

"I can't think of any place left for you or me, except the orphanage, and trust me, you don't want to go there-"

As she listened, Hinata touched the cloth on her face, feeling her lack of eyesight more than ever.

"I'll only be a burden to you..."

Naruto glanced down and correctly guessed her thoughts.

"Then I'll fix it! After all, you are my precious girlfriend!"

 _'Eehhh?! G-girlfriend?'_ Blood rushed straight to her head, and with the amount she already bled out before, Hinata fainted.

Yami merely raised an eyebrow. **'So he noticed too.'**

Naruto only perceived that Hinata had gone quiet, perhaps sleeping.

 _'Blood loss?'_

Yami inwardly laughed to himself. **'I'm pretty sure there's another reason.'**

Upon seeing Naruto being genuinely puzzled, the little black youkai had second thoughts.

 **'Did he really understand Hinata's feelings or whatever?'** To probe this out, Yami went forward with a question he was originally going to ask later about Naruto's 'girlfriend' declaration.

 **"Don't you think this is a bit fast to do that?"**

 _'To do what?'_

 **"Take Hinata as a girlfriend."**

 _'Why would it be?'  
_

Seeing Naruto being clueless, Yami suddenly recalled something.

 **"Wait that's right! You don't know what a girlfriend is!"**

The little white youkai was indignant.

 _'Yeah I do! It's a friend who's a girl, like mom said!'_

 **"Pfft-"** Yami tried to hold his laughter in. **'I don't think mom ever said or meant something like that, but whatever'**

 **"Nevermind, let's talk later about this later."  
**

The little black youkai replied with mirth as they neared the west wall of konoha. Naruto stopped a few feet away, the spirals in his eyes constricting as he instinctively focused his vision. With nobody up there in sight, he proceeded to run up the wall. At the top, he turned to look at Konoha. It was a clear night, and Naruto silently looked at buildings and houses beyond the forested area he just ran through. He did not focus his gaze, trying to take in the whole city, including the giant four heads carved in the mountain far away to his left. Yami did this as well, the urge to tell Naruto to hurry up dying off. Controlled hatred welled within the little white youkai, and he growled out darkly.

"I won't go back on my word...one day...one day... **I will destroy you."**

He turned back, taking his first steps down the wall to the outside world.

* * *

 **AN: Alright Woffie, I kind of felt that way too :/**

 **I removed all chapters except two that were exactly in line with each other.**

 **The next upload will be either the first real chapter of the entire story or the chapter immediately after Vengeful Exodus.**

 **Review/Fav/Follow pls :/ (Or all three)**


	4. Development

_'How much farther are we going?'_

Naruto asked his inner darkness, his form a blur rushing through the forest. Ninja leaping past the endless trees for the past two hours hadn't given the small boy any fatigue, but he was still curious.

 **"Well beyond the patrol range of Root's hidden sentry stations that dot the relative proximity of the village itself.** **By your current speed...about 12 minutes.** **"  
**

Came Yami's curt reply. Naruto, remembering who was holding up the root disguise, fell silent again. After the listed time, darkness suddenly pooled around him, forcing the small boy to stop to avoid crashing into anything. When Naruto could see again, he was back into his smaller old body.

 **"Aaaaah okay we're in the clear. Let's talk now, but come to me so I can also show you stuff."**

Yami stretched, his limbs no longer so focused or tense as he retracted from Naruto's body, although he still kept his awareness primed in the case of unexpected situations. The white haired youkai meanwhile, after setting the sleeping Hinata down against a thick tree, thought about how cold it was, and the second he did so, black chakra erupted around his body. It was comfortingly warm, and didn't burn him at all. Thinking back to Yami's words, he thought:

 _'Maybe, since I ate the Kyubi, its powers are now mine?'_

 **"Yep. At least it seems that way."  
**

His darkness commented. Naruto, remembering how Hinata felt rather cold too, plopped down next to her. The thought and subsequent action was so sudden Yami didn't have a chance to do anything.

 **'-She's so dead-'** The thought barely passed before Yami noticed that neither Hinata nor the tree she lied on was burning. In fact, the instant Naruto's tails wrapped around her, the coating of black flame enveloped her as well, but remained harmlessly flickering about her form.

 **"Oh." 'Another thing to keep in mind, I suppose; apparently the cloak can be transferred and can alternate between a destructive or auxiliary purpose.'  
**

"Huh? Is something wrong Yami?" After closing his eyes, Naruto had his whole consciousness in the seal with Yami, and noticed his darkness's startled spasm of movement.

 **"Not really. Just...did you consider the idea that even if the black cloak didn't burn you, it still could burn everything else?"**

"What?" Naruto was confused, until he suddenly remembered how the same flames burned him in the past.

 **"Yeah you didn't think of that, did you...I know you're very instinctual, but in the future, can we possibly talk about your impulses before acting on them?"**

"I...dunno..." The white youkai looked a little lost at that. He knew he did things without thinking, so if he wasn't thinking, how could he talk it out with Yami beforehand?

 **"Don't get me wrong, I also don't think that this trait is all bad either. It's the kind of thing that makes you unpredictable, which can be an edge, because in this world, predictability gets people killed, while unpredictability kills people. It also helped you adapt to when your plans to steal stuff went wrong too. Just...be more careful on what you do, alright?"**

"okay!"

Yami sighed, leaning back against one of the extremely thick gate pillars.

 **"Anyway, our goal is to gain power..."**

"Right!" Naruto affirmed with a nod.

 **"And we want vengeance..."**

Naruto's face darkened. " **Yesss**..." He hissed. The masked man, the whole village along with those root bastards and Orochimaru; He vowed to make them all pay.

 **"Well great! 'cause we'll need power to do that! Come with me."**

The dark haired youkai stepped past the bars into the darkness outside, beckoning Naruto with a wave as he disappeared. Naruto unhesitatingly ran in after him. Immediately, he couldn't see a thing. Yami's voice sounded from...somewhere...

 **"I mean, trying to take revenge right now doesn't seem to be a smart idea. There's too many unknowns about ourselves and about our enemies, so let's focus on what we do know, or more specifically, what I know and you could know if I showed you. I'll illuminate a specific strip of memory for you to view, and based on my prior two attempts as experience, I'll assume you'll be able to repeat what they do on the first try. Let's begin..."**

So began Naruto's acclimation to the memories buried in his subconscious. They were generally very short scenes of different ninja using a jutsu and of its full effects. In the memories, it was Naruto felt like he was the ninja and the one to use the jutsu, not as an observer like before when he saw his mother. That didn't stop him from being able to converse with Yami, who started explaining about more in depth information about ninjas and the world in general that Naruto hadn't known. Also, as the person in the memory, the white youkai heard whatever thoughts the person was thinking about. As each ninja used a technique the white youkai felt the experience take root inside him, flowing through as if he could do it all along.

Snapping his spiraled eyes open and splitting his vision between the woods and the memory viewed, he confirmed that suspicion by successfully replicating them all himself, albeit sometimes in a somewhat different manner. For example, in the memory the transformation jutsu was used in the order of the Dog, Boar, and Ram handsigns; yet for Naruto all it took was a quick shroud of darkness and no handsigns, like how Yami had done. His darkness hypothesized it was due to their constitution as youkai, and proposed them to have some relation with Kitsune. After gaining knowledge about the shape-shifting and flamewielding folklore surrounding them, Naruto was inclined to agree. This still prompted a discussion about just what exactly did the Kyubi do to them. All throughout the jutsus, a paranoid Naruto made sure that the effects wouldn't be visible above the forest, and kept his senses out for any negative intent, or just any intent at all.

 **"You noticed, right? Our senses have been magnified many times over through these new...additions to our body. Our** ** **mental power** ******and** detection of other people's emotions have also greatly increased as well. " **

_'okay, yeah. What about that black fog and water stuff?'_ Thought Naruto, as he absentmindedly stopped expelling a wave of water from his mouth, watching how the drenched foliage dripped in front of him, satisfied that he could perform Suiton: Wild Water Wave.

 **"I sort of feel that we've instinctively manipulated them, like it came to us naturally. It doesn't seem to be drawing from our chakra, at least, I don't think so. Perhaps it's using up the so-called youki that youkai are said to have? The gas form manipulation seems to be similar to a record in the root's archives about a...Iburi clan that could become smoke at will. "**

 _'Smoke clan? Do you have memories on them?'_

 **"No, and looking for them now is pointless. The report states they were all killed a few years ago in attempts for bloodline transfusion by _Orochimaru._** **"**

Yami finished with a snarl. Naruto was affected with a sudden burst of anger at the mention of the snake sannin, his water formation wall exploding, buffeting and even uprooting a few trees. The resulting racket had Naruto take a glance behind him to see Hinata still out like a light, still sleeping in black fire. After a moment's silence, Yami composed himself.

 **"At any case, it's certainly an interesting power that we should experiment and develop...Speaking of which, what do you think about our new eyes? Specifically, what do you think we should call them?"**

 _'Our...dojutsu...'_ At the thought of his spiral eyes, Naruto grinned. Their existence definitely means more power for him, and they seem to be to useful too. From what Yami explained, a dojutsu user can overuse their eyes, thus unable to use whatever special abilities the dojutsu possessed for certain time-frame, but it doesn't mean that the user will be exhausted; they can still use other techniques. And even better for him, his swirl eyes seemed to be permanently active, and Naruto didn't feel any drain at all from them.

 _'...They are basically spirals in each eye, so how 'bout Uzugan?'_ Naruto proposed as he clapped his hands together, sending a rush of wind forward, shaking some trees ahead.

 **"Simple. Sounds good."**

 _'Yami, since you're asking me for a name...that means you've seen nothing like it in the memories, right?'  
_

The black youkai in question widened his eyes at Naruto's intuition. _  
_

 **"Yeah...That's right. I also have n** **o idea if the color inversion difference between our respective Uzugan means different abilities, or if it's just like that for an aesthetic sense, or maybe completely different dojutsu entirely."**

 _'...Oh...okay, but just like you said, we'll experiment...'  
_

 **"Yes we will, but I do know a few things that you don't. Besides the whole shared vision thing between your split selves, I mean. First, from what I've seen, they are _crazy powerful_." ** Yami spoke, amazed, almost as if he couldn't believe it.

"Wha...?"

 **"** ** **For instance, I noticed that when the spirals spin, it enhances our perception by making things appear in slow motion...but my other discovery is much more important.** Naruto, after you were overloaded with memories after eating the Kyubi, your Uzugan was activated when you viewed snips of them. In those snips, you were formless, and could go through anything and anywhere! The distance of you to the person whose memories we view in that... _memory world_ doesn't seem to matter! You could also attach yourself to people using teleportation, but that's a paltry discovery in comparison to the idea of seemingly limitless clairvoyance into the past!"  
**

Yami's voice grew particularly wired as he talked, and Naruto felt pins and needles all over his skin, startling him and causing his Doton: Earth-Style Wall to collapse.

 **"Just viewing through pure memories just gives us that person's perception of the events, what the Uzugan does is show us much more, with the trade off being that we can't experience what they are thinking at the time anymore. That drawback is easily mitigated if we just run through the memory again without using the Uzugan though. If we can master this eye, we could find out so much! The Kyubi alone has existed for eons! The fuckin fox actually predates shinobi history!"**

"...So we can go find out all the jutsu that ever existed too right?" Said Naruto, catching on. In the air, his fireball jutsu dissipated before hitting any of the greenery.

 **"Correct. Remember though, for jutsu performed by people we didn't eat, we wouldn't have memories that enable us to instantly replicate them. Still, training with this eye is imperative. There are probably even more things it can do. Like, maybe we can look into other people's memories without eating them or something."**

"Cool. And uh, for the eating thing, are you sure we just get their memories? I mean I feel a lot stronger now..."

 **"Ah yes, the devouring thing also holds limitless potential. It seems to automatically give us qualities of those we eat that we didn't have before, while bolstering whatever features we already possess if we share them. Like when the limit of our chakra reserves grew immensely larger after eating the Kyubi, along with our physical attributes. This powerful gift is also what makes us capable of using all of these different elemental ninjutsu, since we ate all those root people who had different chakra natures."  
**

"So to get even stronger from now on, I should eat strong things." Naruto resolved, his body shimmering out of the camouflage jutsu.

 **"Basically."**

"So...Are ninjutsu all you're gonna show me?" Asked the white youkai after he swiftly moved 30 meters forward and back in a blurring speed, the 100th memory being a masked root ninja flickering forward from on top of a treebranch into a meadow.

 **"For now. I certainly don't think I should show taijutsu fights and stuff. The people in the memories all are taller and larger, their experience in fights won't really help us, our movements would be all off. We have to train their physical skills to suit our body first. As to genjutsu, I have a specific plan, and I sort of think that ninjutsu is a more of a pressing concern. For the fox, well...its powerful moves can be felt by even nonsensors countries over. For sealing we should get some paper and ink first. For-"  
**

"-I meant..." The white youkai cut in Yami's absorbed explanation before trailing off.

Of course Naruto would desire to see more of his parents, being the orphaned boy he was. Yami, hearing the thought tried to gently explain, which was remarkably difficult given his rough voice.

 **"The fox could perceive outside the seal, so we can look at our parents starting from when mom became its jailer. But, we don't possess either of _their_ memories, so we would have to figure out how to perform their abilities by ourselves, which I assume would obviously take more than a few seconds. I would much rather you getting down all of these jutsu that we can instantly replicate first."**

"But...don't you have all of mother's memories?" Naruto remembered how he had...consumed...his mother's corpse.

 **"Interestingly enough...I don't. It looks like we get memories from people's souls, not their bodies."**

"Souls?"

 **"Yes, souls are something inside everything alive...and nothing dead"** Seeing that Naruto was still lost, Yami tried to explain it better, not that it was easy to in the first place. **"...Uhhh...it's that blue thing that left dad's body before he died. Our Uzugan can apparently see them. It's...hard to explain...Just picture it as the real him..."**

Light dawned in Naruto's spiral eyes above his expression of sorrow. His ball of light jutsu glowed, illuminating his forlorn expression.

"I sorta get it. So, people die when their souls leave their bodies, which is why I don't have mom's memories 'cause she's been...d-dead?"

 **"Yeah, exactly. Going back to our devouring thing, eating bodies just makes us stronger and capable of using their abilities, or augment our existing ones if we share them, but without souls thus the experience, it's hard to know and instantly use whatever those abilities are since apparently, a soul is a container for every memory someone has."**

"...So how many jutsu are left?" The small boy focused, and successfully utilized what he now knew was called the mystical palm technique, his hands emanating a green glow.

 **"Well, that was the last medical jutsu."  
**

Naruto frowned. Besides the fact that there weren't very many, the fact remained that he knew from gaining the experience that none of them could heal the wounds suffered by his parents.

"There aren't any that..."

 **"Yeah, but there is one prospect I can consider from the memories for more advanced medical techniques, like maybe organ regeneration or ones that possibly could heal wounds as severe as...The ones our parents died from."**

"What... What is it?"

 **"A woman named Tsunade...Our grandmother..."**

Yami admitted in an ambiguous tone.

"Our grandmother?!"

Naruto shouted, getting excited over the prospect of living family.

 **"Don't get your hopes so highly about her. This is a proposition, nothing more..."**

Yami said in a low and level tone, his expression cold.

 **"Quite a few things were revealed to us, and through the memories of those you devoured, I was able to unravel quite a few mysteries. One of them being... the fact that Tsunade Senju was our grandmother."**

 **'Also, there is only one person I can think of that Orochimaru would call slug.'  
** The dark youkai thought privately. After putting the bits and pieces together, it was sort of obvious what Orochimaru insinuated.

"Sooo...What do you know about her?"

 **"Called the** **world's strongest kunoichi and medical ninja. P** **rimarily responsible for setting up the modern system of medical-nin. She is said to be able to identify ailments at a glance and treat conditions that other medical-nin deem _impossible_ to heal."**

"Wow...She sounds super strong, what's the problem?" Naruto asked, not understanding. Yami thought back to a memory the fox had of his parents as children, with Minato quietly admitting to Kushina that he was an orphan too.

* * *

"It could be worse Kushina-chan. In my case, I never knew my parents." On top of a hill both children were sitting on, Minato looked out into the distance. Kushina held a worried frown, and based on everything Yami had seen, his father's behavior was a little out of character.

"Then again, you could argue that you can't miss what you don't have."

Said the spiky blonde after a moment's silence, his eyes glinting, an expression of longing on the child's face.

"A family...I wonder what having one is like..."

* * *

 **"...Awesome reputations does not equal awesome people. She left our father at birth or before he could remember. Not sure the details, but she did."** Minato's face held no hate over the idea of his abandonment, not that he actually knew of it in the first place. Of course, Yami, as a dark being, certainly didn't feel the same way, but held back just enough to speak to Naruto in a ground out voice.

 **'I can't think of any reasonable explanations, only negative ones.'  
**

At that, Naruto's mood dimmed, his earlier smile replaced with a frown.

 **"The only reason I can even fathom meeting her is that, although she abandoned our dad, strangely enough, apparently later she took her niece or something with her. So...It could go either way to me..."**

"I want to meet her, or at least...that other person you said." Naruto responded, his voice not so energetic as the previous moment. Flicking his wrist, he channeled a small amount of chakra so that many small sparks of lightning shot only a feet in front of him.

 **"Finding them won't be so easy. The world is vast after all. On that topic Naruto, I'm aware of your desire to see the present world with your own eyes, but...-"  
** After the memory showing a root anbu using Raiton: Scattering Drops faded, a giant image of a map of the elemental nations manifested itself before him in the world of darkness.

 **"-where do you think we should go? I mean, I guess we could go anywhere to start."  
**

Naruto stared at the map, and a certain country far west beyond caught his eye.

"Land of Demons? Sounds like my kind of place! Let's go there!"

 **'In terms of places to start, why not?' "Westward it is."**

Yami knew that most likely, the land of demons was...not a land of _demons_ , but was curious all the same. The sun began to peek over the horizon, announcing the dawn of a new day.

* * *

Over the past few days after leaving Konoha, the two children journeyed westward throughout the Land of Fire, with Naruto leading his blind friend on. The daytime pace was slow, but a few times Naruto spent a part of the night just speedily carrying a sleeping Hinata onward. He typically stopped by every village that Yami deemed remote or unimportant, and stole supplies. It really wasn't that different that how he used to live, except he now had this awesome camouflage jutsu that even erased his scent, and he had a friend to care for too, even if she constantly acted weird. Actually, having companionship, whether it be Yami in his head or Hinata by his side, made this whole journey much more pleasant. Over this time, Naruto developed a tendency to ask Yami about anything he wasn't sure about, to which he would answer or bluntly state he didn't know. On the subject of Hinata's behavior, the dark youkai would just adopt an unreadable expression and tell Naruto to figure it out himself. Like that helped any.

The blind girl was sort of oblivious to her surroundings, which was understandable with the lost eyesight and all, and Naruto would just lead her by the hand. She was even more meek and quiet when he did so, but it wasn't like she was always like that. When Hinata kind of realized that Naruto was committing theft, after figuring out that she didn't really know how he was getting stuff, she did ask him about it.

"Isn't stealing...wrong?"

Naruto shrugged, not that she could see it.

"I'm gonna do whatever it takes to live, even if that means stealing. I always did this as a stray Hinata-chan, but now you are one too. So the first thing I gotta tell ya is that naive ideals won't cut it."

"...I understand."

In terms of his pursuit of power, Naruto ran through a schedule of traveling by day, and training at night. After the first night Naruto went through all the ninjutsu memories. The two days after that had Yami say to start off on one ability in particular, separate from his experimentation with his own natural youkai powers. His darkness explained through root knowledge that Orochimaru apparently had run him through a bloodline transplant experiment with the Mokuton of the Senju clan, with the dark child grinning when he showed Naruto some memories the fox had of their great-great grandfather Hashirama Senju fighting it and one Uchiha Madara, a scowling man with long spiky black hair, whom they noted that he seemed to be a different person from the **masked man**. That (one-eyed?) masked man was shorter, and the Kyubi apparently had thought he smelled...planty.

 **"It doesn't matter who the fuck he is. He will pay all the same!"** Yami seethed, ending the discussion on the masked man's identity.

Naruto meanwhile had awedly watched the brown haired man throw around wood constructs several times larger than the Kyubi like toys.

 **"I started with this power because...If we can grow to match him, our enemies don't stand a chance."** Yami laughed evilly as he watched several giant wood dragons constrict around some sort of towering blue tengu construct that Madara shrouded around himself. As the dark youkai didn't actually have Hashirama's memories, or any wood-user's for that matter, he simply showed memories that had the first hokage using Mokuton over and over again. Naruto, under Yami's given knowledge that it required earth and water chakra, tried to do it, but only succeeding in firing off the different chakra natures separately. Then, after going off the limb that making plants was basically creating life out of nothing, Naruto began adding yang chakra that he would mould for his healing jutsus. Mixing all three led to him being able to sprout leafed branches out of his arms by the dawn of the third day.

Now, on the fourth day, Naruto's journey would greatly change.

 _'So...Onanji was it?'_

Naruto thought as he gazed at the small village ahead. By now, he had grasped all of the maps the root had of the present world, memorizing them to finest detail and knew only that arriving at the small town meant they were close to the triple border between the Land of Fire, Land of Grass, and the Land of Rain. Yami knew more details about the place.

 **"It's a relatively unknown town, rather underdeveloped too, so it's rather safe from scrutiny...of the ninja kind. I guess it's time to... _resupply_."  
** Yami smirked at the end, knowing full well by now they didn't need to steal to survive, just liking the idea of stealing itself.

"...Hey Hinata. We're gonna stop over there in that village for a bit."

"A-alright..." Hinata said shyly as she was led by the hand into the village. Yami stated that bringing her along was a good cover as two village children playing around. From Naruto's aversion to standing out due to his time in Konoha, a quick transformation jutsu took away all of his youkai traits and covered his Uzugan to shape his original blue eyes. Despite only three days passing, he had already stolen enough stuff to fill a barn, but with stolen empty scrolls and ink, and memories of something called the Fūnyū no Jutsu (Enclosing technique), storage wasn't a problem.

Of course, the Naruto playing with Hinata was actually a him made out of dark fog. Shared eyesight aside, the clone and him shared the mindscape as well, which meant Yami could look over and communicate to both of them, and that Naruto could...control? feel?...them. The young child couldn't really explain it, but Yami explained to him the phrase "Hive mind" as the closest thing describe it, hypothesizing that the mindscape was the center. Remembering when he devoured the demon fox, both Naruto and Yami knew that the dark clones were complete replicas in power, chakra reserves, personality, basically in every way, except they couldn't create dark fog out of themselves without shedding parts of their body (being made out of it). Unlike like the shadow clone, they didn't disperse in one hit; they seemed to share his durability.

The real Naruto was covertly sneaking around peoples' residences in his Hiding with Camouflage Technique. It didn't matter to him if they were home or not 'cause he was invisible, and left no shadow or scent. The root guy he ate even could erase his chakra signature with it, which Naruto also did now as part of the jutsu, not that the boy expected any sensors in this remote village in the first place. Well, he would be proven wrong.

The white-haired boy grinned silently as he left through the window of someone's home, his feet coated in chakra. The Camouflage jutsu was cool, but didn't account for stuff like footprints, disturbed wind currents and sounds in general. Naruto discovered long ago back in Konoha when he figured out the whole sticking to surfaces thing that it didn't leave any outlines of his footprints. In terms of noise from footsteps, Naruto already had tons of practice with that, and some of the houses back in Hidden leaf had way creakier floors. Inside houses it's usually not really windy so Naruto didn't really worry about that either.

Transformed non-swirl blue eyes locked onto what would be Naruto's tenth lift, a small wooden cottage. Temporarily undoing the transformation and sniffing the air, he detected the presence of two people inside, an adult and a child. Using the Hiding in Surface Technique, he phased through a wall and into a small kitchen interior where Naruto spotted a fairly tall woman with neck-length red hair wearing a cooking apron over a long sand-colored blouse, her sleeves rolled up and her back towards him. Disregarding her, Naruto turned and reached for the nearest thing that caught his eye, sets of chopsticks and cooking ware in an open drawer. Before he could do so a hushed whisper of "Invisible?" stopped his outstretched arm.

It was that woman's voice, and Naruto whirled around to see her light lavender eyes staring at him, her slightly surprised expression changing into a sad frown.

 **"What! A sensor? But we erased our chakra signature so how?!"** Yami exclaimed, genuinely shocked.

"...Child, who are you to have experienced so much pain..." The woman said softly.

 **"How does she even..."** The dark youkai was really puzzled, while Naruto's eyes widened, his body freezing up. This marked the first time he was caught using the Camouflage jutsu, and this lady didn't curse him or try to storm him out like every other time he was caught stealing. In fact, something in her understanding gaze made his breathing audibly heavy and made him feel like he couldn't move.

"...Stealing won't fill the emptiness in your heart, and won't replace what's missing in your life..." The lady said while taking a step towards him. Naruto's breathing quickened but he didn't move, his body shimmering into view as his concentration for the camouflage jutsu shattered. The woman's face seemed to get more sad at this, and she took another step forward.

Yami was more composed at the scene. **'What is this? What's her angle?' "Naruto don't trust her! This must be a trap!"** He paranoidly shouted to a deaf ear. It was as if Naruto didn't hear him at all, and Yami had an inkling why, even if he wasn't affected. The dark youkai (and thus Naruto too) had sensed no negative intentions from her, which didn't really make sense to Naruto given his history in Konoha and the fact that he was caught stealing. Added to the waves of compassion they were feeling, it was obvious that Naruto didn't really know how to react. Yami did feel that what he was sensing was genuine, but was suspicious to the core given his dark nature.

The lady stopped in front of Naruto, lowering down to the boy's height and placing gentle hands on his shoulders.

"You don't have to do this anymore...-" Her eyes moved slightly to the right and Naruto connectively knew that direction was where Hinata and his split self were.

"-Both of you."

That was it. Naruto, who was at the verge of tears at that point, broke down crying on the spot. Seemingly uncaring of the fact Naruto starting leaking black tears, the red-haired woman gently wrapped her arms around him, murmuring in soothing tones and patting his back.

"There there..."

Yami watched on in disbelief, feeling strange, and after a few moments Naruto wiped his eyes and stood back, uttering his very first apology to someone who wasn't dead.

"...I'm sorry..." Naruto said with a voice full of guilt.

"It's okay. Children like you shouldn't be forced to live and resort to such a thing."

The lady regarded him kindly, introduced herself while rubbing his cheeks.

"I'm Kara. Child, what is your name?"

"I-I'm Naruto..."

Naruto stuttered out in a similar fashion that Hinata would always do. No one had ever done rubbed his cheeks before and Naruto was finding it _extremely_ pleasing. The small boy momentarily blanked out in pleasure and his fox traits plus eyes reverted, greatly surprising Kara. This only made her think that Naruto was even cuter, stroking his ears and tails with a tender smile. The white youkai's dizzy-looking eyes matched his current emotional state, and under her touch, the fur that would turn razor sharp at the thought of his enemies became super soft.

Naruto snapped out of this trance when Kara stopped, hearing a voice.

"...Mommy, what are you doing? He feels scary..."

A girl Naruto's age stood at the doorway to somewhere else in the cottage, staring at them with crimson eyes and her body tensed. She had red hair just like her mother, though the right side was rather spiky. She wore a small pair of glasses and kid's clothes. Kara stood up, motioning for her to come closer.

"Come now, don't be afraid Karin, meet one of your new siblings."

* * *

 **AN: Yes, in this story, Tsunade is Naruto's grandmother (Minato's mother). To suit the story, therefore the Ame Orphans are Jiraiya's first students and Minato and Kushina are a few years younger than Canon.  
**

 **Locations of countries not on the canon map of the elemental nations will be wherever I want them to be. The land of snow is presumably above the canon map.  
**

 **Karin's mother isn't named in canon, so I just decided to name her Kara (lol).**

 **Review/Fav/Follow pls :/ (Or all three)**


	5. Root Analysis

That evening, three young children and one adult sat on the floor around a low-rise table. Naruto was one of the kids, along with his true swirl eyes and foxy parts out, already deciding to himself that he would be this way in private, and only in private, a sentiment Yami strongly agreed with.

"You're all growing kids, eat up."

In the steaming bowl of vegetable soup in front of him, Naruto poked a bobbing carrot slice with a spoon. He wasn't actually eating 'cause of his dislike for vegetables; after leaving Konoha he always made sure to start eating them even if he didn't like them, to 'grow up to be a big boy' as his mother had said to his baby self. No, he was still stunned by the fact that he was a part of one of those family scenes he used to sneakily spy on back in Konoha, ones that always filled him with envy. Looking up to see Kara gently helping Hinata with her own meal, speaking to the blind girl with that soothing tone of voice of hers, "be careful not to spill" and "blow on it gently if it's too hot." and...and...Naruto began to wonder if this was all a dream.

 _...Thump...Thump...Thump..._

Unnoticed by Naruto, his heart unconsciously started beating again, knocking Yami from his own daze for a second. The dark youkai resumed staring ahead, enraptured by the scene.

Hearing some sort of rapid puffing noise Naruto looked to his right, where Karin was furiously blowing on her own bowl and tentatively lifting a spoonful to her mouth. Her initial wariness over his presence had faded with Kara's gentle prodding. After stepping closer to the still stunned boy and scrutinizing him a bit, she had boisterously announced that Naruto felt "really big and warm", her attitude changing to reflect what Yami assumed and told him to be her true personality. She had also taken to petting and stroking Naruto furry attributes, to which he had reacted in the same manner as he did to Kara; as in, becoming pliant and letting her touch him all she wanted. Honestly, he didn't know how to react.

Turning back to his own meal, not bothering to cool it or use his spoon, he drank the whole bowl in one go. It was scalding hot, but Naruto was burnt alive many times before so it felt like nothing, plus that was how he always did it; He stole all his meals and ate them as quickly as he could in fear of losing them. This was...different. It was the tastiest thing ever. To him it tasted way better than anything he had stolen off stall counters. In the few seconds the broth flowed down his throat Naruto felt a warmth he had never felt before when eating a meal. The feeling traveled to the top of his head and to the tips of his toes, bathing him in a soft, cushy sensation. His fox ears flattened in delectation and all ten tails flopped to the ground from their hung position in the air.

 _'This is what love tastes like...'  
_ Naruto decided as his grip of reality slipped away. Yami just had a strange expression on his face, which turned back into his absorbed stare at the scene as he thought to himself.

 **'And maybe food tastes best when you don't have to work for it?'**

* * *

That night was very quiet, with the only sound Naruto could hear being his new...family's quiet breathing. On the wooden floor, four futons lied connected in a row. Kara slept soundly in the middle, with Hinata and Karin snuggling on each side fast asleep. Naruto just lied blankly on the futon on the very end, and was tailess; they made the covers too stuffy for him. His head faced the others' sleeping forms, still kind of glazed over this new development. Although less than a day had passed, their presence had grown to an irreplaceable part of Naruto's life, kind of like when he found out about his dead parents who loved him. It wasn't as if he could fall asleep anyway. The closest he ever got was just a laconic state that was more akin to resting, which gave way to restlessness after a few minutes at most if he wasn't in his mindscape. Oh well, at least without sleep, he wouldn't have nightmares ever again.

 **"Hey. Snap out of it."**

In the mindscape Naruto dazedly lied on the yellow floor of the seal, and Yami picked him up and shook him a bit. The white youkai promptly regained his senses and stepped back on his feet.

"Wha-? Oh, right."

However, not even a second passed before his complexion became foggy again. Yami sighed as Naruto spaced out, but perked up as the white-haired boy spoke up mid-thought.

"Yami, what do you think about this?"

The dark youkai actually was still paranoid but knew thinking with that mindset wouldn't get him anywhere with Naruto (since he just ignored him whenever he said stuff like that). Yami rationalized that just like with Hinata, Naruto was _too_ trusting of people he took as precious people even though they may have literally just met.

 **'Haaah...well so far it seems to have gone well, but that doesn't mean I'll let my guard down!'**

Back to Naruto's question, Yami tried to think in Kara's point of view, and responded.

 **"...I think she's too kind.** **Kindness like that is taken advantage of...To start, how can she trust us?** **We look seriously unnatural, but I guess she doesn't care?"  
**

At that, Naruto realized that she never asked anything about them, not about their eyes, their fox parts; she just took them in. The white youkai in turn certainly didn't want to take advantage of her or take this for granted. He thought about repaying her but he didn't know how he would exactly do that. He resolved to do it anyway.

"I'll call her mom."

It was a start. He loved Kushina dearly but his small world had grown again. He didn't feel as if he was replacing her, but rather gaining a... second mother? Something like that.

 **"Naruto...you can't just call people whatever you want."**

Said Yami, stuck on the idea that she might not accept it. He knew, considering that Kara took them in and her personality, that it was probably an unfounded concern but he didn't care. It sounded too personal to him, and that sort of stuff was where he floundered like Naruto. But where deep down the white-haired boy yearned for companionship, Yami was wary of everyone (except Naruto).

Hearing the dark youkai's words Naruto grew anxious. The white youkai who wouldn't flinch when being burned, stabbed or cut to pieces realized he feared over how those he cared about viewed him. Still though, he persisted.

"I-I want to. I'll ask."

Yami didn't like hearing the nervous quiver in Naruto's voice, and decided to shift gears.

 **"Stop worrying, we don't need them."**

Naruto was suddenly reminded of his conversation with Yami about taking Hinata with them. His stomach churned uncomfortably but he remembered that this was Yami, his darkness that always was there with him, for everything.

"Why would you say that?"

Reading Naruto's thoughts the black-haired youkai replied.

 **"It's not what you think. Don't get me wrong I like her too, I think what's happening now is...good. What I mean is that from now and to the future remember why we left Konoha. I'm not saying to leave them now or anything but to just never forget our goal."**

"I haven't forgotten, I want power to protect those precious to me."

Naruto spoke with unwavering conviction.

 **"I know, but that wasn't the only reason was it...?"**

Yami formed the memories they had of the masked man and Orochimaru around them as an extra touch, and Naruto's face darkened in remembrance.

 **"...Also do you think you're strong enough right now?"** The dark youkai countered.

Naruto thought very hard about how powerless he had felt then, and also what he could do now. In the end he could only say:

"I'm not sure."

Yami sighed.

 **"Yeah, I feel that those sorts of questions should be our top priority. This...love...-" 'Urgh, no other word to describe it.' "-...is nice, but never forget our vengeance Naruto, and more importantly, our _hatred..."_  
**

Naruto lowered his eyes, face darkening in thought of everyone he hated. Yami grinned to himself as he saw Naruto's face.

 **'Good, now he is ready...'** **"Anyway come with me,** **now's the time to show you something..."**

Yami started to pull Naruto through the bars of the seal and back into the darkness. The white youkai, caught up in his hate and distantly realizing who was the one pulling him, didn't resist.

Traversing through the inky blackness, Naruto began to hear irregular hoarse breathing in the distance, as if someone had ripped their throat screaming. This somewhat put him on guard, but not too much, since Yami was there. Naruto noticed Yami's expression grow more and more gleeful the closer they got to the source of the sound.

Naruto knew that the darkness in his mind was different from say...the dark of the night. He possessed rather good night vision which had helped his nocturnal escapades back at Konoha, and now the Uzugan made nighttime as bright as day. But in his mind it was different, like the darkness had a...presence and Naruto just couldn't see through it. As he walked, Naruto could feel it shifting away in front of him to reveal a space of dim white light. It was there that he saw what was causing the noise.

The woman Naruto recognized from his root shinobi disguise lied stiffly on the ground maskless, rasping with dried tear trails on her stricken face. Black lance shaped objects punctured through her anbu uniform in several places on her body, nailing her to down to a featureless black floor.

Yami laughed mockingly at the sight. **"** **In Root, you have no name, feelings, past, or future. There is only the mission. Though it seems _you_ have failed in the emotions department."  
**

The root member gave no sign of hearing him. Still mired in dark thoughts, one part of Naruto swelled in satisfaction, but he still asked.

"Yami...what is this?"

 **"We need a target for genjutsu, so _this_ is for practice. Knock yourself out!"**

And so began Naruto's development for genjutsu, and Yami ran him through all the ones the memories' had. Naruto tore through them all in a savage frenzy, eager to inflict pain on someone from the organization he had suffered under. For the supplementary ones like the Time Reversal Technique that didn't exactly inflict pain per se, Naruto rushed through them anyway to get to ones that did. Unlike with ninjutsu, he replicated all the genjutsu in the mindscape, not the real world. It was through this experience that both youkai figured out another trait of the Uzugan, the spinning spirals not only slowing things down but also possessing a hypnotic effect, enhancing their illusory abilities. They could use genjutsu with them and view it through looking at their target's eyes.

Overall, he found genjutsu to be a complicated and simple art. Complicated in definition, when Yami had previously explained that it is to control the chakra flow of a target's cerebral nervous system, affecting their five senses. Simple when Naruto, after instantly replicating the whole arsenal of genjutsu, thus sort of grasping how to generally do it, started to experiment and make his own, something he took like a fish to water. Yami hypothesized that genjutsu being under Inton (Yin release) had something to do with it, considering that they had consumed the dark part of the Kyubi. Or maybe it their presumed connection to kitsune. Inton, Naruto quickly found, kind of really depended on his imagination, something he had in spades.

Naruto laughed as he made the woman experience an particularly realistic illusion of burning alive in black flames. The white youkai essentially had created genjutsu of all of his worst moments, laying down each one on her in succession. Afterwards however, he frowned, his hateful fervor dying down somewhat. Sure she had thrashed and writhed madly, but her original pain-filled face turned into a blank one throughout this, which made things slightly weird.

 **"Apply Magen (Demonic Illusion): Hell Viewing Technique on her."** Yami suggested, and Naruto remembered he had seen a flash of something in her eyes when he had performed it on her. He did so, and as he stared into her eyes, he saw the technique's circle of leaves fall away, revealing a young girl with short brown hair dressed in a standard root uniform. She drew a tanto that was strapped to her back, but threw it away in the same second. The girl then suddenly stumbled backward but remained standing, blood spreading on her black shirt at the chest area. She smiled, small rivulets of red running down the corners of her mouth, and reached forward in a hugging motion before falling forward, fading to nothing.

This was the second time Naruto had seen this, and now he saw a twitch in the woman's face. He did the technique again. And again. And again. Cracks appeared on her empty exterior and then the waterworks burst. She cried and screamed, raw emotions of pain, grief and regret covering her visage. Her fingers scrabbled at the pikes pierced through her palms, her body struggling to break free.

 **"The difference between pain of the body and the spirit..."** The dark youkai murmured with a grin.

 _'Yes, this is what was missing.'_ Naruto grinned as well, maliciousness oozing off the child's face. He could feel her pain, and decided he liked that feeling. Why this was only a D-rank genjutsu, he would never understand. It was supposed to show people their deepest fears! Then again Yami had explained that it was supposed to be rather easily dispelled, which brought up the question of why was this root member susceptible to it now. Yami had explained that the root were anbu, which were supposed to a hidden village's vaunted elite ninjas. Heck, how was this person here in his mindscape in the first place? As the woman continued screaming, Naruto caught a glimpse of a familiar black mark on her tongue. His eyes widened and he dropped the jutsu.

 **"Ok ok, you have questions."** Yami sighed, feeling Naruto's scattered thoughts and knew that his focus on hatred was vastly lessened due to them. Hearing that phrase and that tone of voice, Naruto calmed down a bit, and placed on his attention to his fellow youkai. Yami had always used it when he knew everything Naruto wanted to know, and was about to answer in the form of an open conversation that even cleared up any questions he had during one. This as just another routine they went through at night when not training.

The dark youkai clapped his hands together.

 **"Explanation time!"**

As he said this, a second Yami stepped out of the darkness and stood over the root shinobi, who was panting very much like the way Naruto found her now that he stopped using Hell Viewing Technique. That dark youkai promptly looked her in the eyes, and the screaming resumed once again.

 **"Now where should I start..."**

The first Yami tapped his chin, but noticed Naruto's stare at the other him.

 **"You know that we're in your subconscious now, but perhaps I should've mentioned earlier I can control the darkness around here for not just for showing you stuff, and you're not the only one who can make dark clones. Oh yeah, I also figured out how to make solid weapon-like objects, as you can see there. We should get you working on that-"**

The dark youkai said conversationally while pointing at the lances.

"-Yami, why don't you just take over my body and do everything."

Yami froze at Naruto's interjection.

 **'Whoa, where did this come from?'**

After reading the white-haired boy's thoughts, which were rather dark in a different way than before, negative instead of hateful, he understood.

 **"So you think of yourself as redundant."**

"What does that mean?"

Before the dark youkai spoke, the second Yami, still casting the genjutsu, muffled the root woman. It wouldn't do to have a bunch of screaming ruin what he was about to say.

 **'Haah... what am I doing, routing darkness out of him...'**

 **"Unnecessary, repetitious. Listen Naruto, just because I figure things out and know more doesn't mean that you're a lesser repeat of me that's unneeded.** **Don't you remember what I said about learning jutsu? Anything I can do means you can. Also, that isn't how we're connected at all. I'm you! _Your_ darkness! You're not completely dark man, and with that distinction you can and have figured out things of your own that I didn't consider, remember?"  
**

"Like what?"

 **"Like how we can apply the whole cloak of black flames to others without burning them to a crisp? When you were ripping and eatin' those root ninja, I saw the incinerating part, and that's how I took it..."**

The fire died down a little in Yami's eyes as he spoke. Meanwhile, upon remembering how he had went crazy and took down a bunch of root ninjas that he got easily captured by initially, Naruto's view of himself slowly changed for the better.

 **"I know us Naruto, but particularly, I know _I'm_ a really selfish person. Besides ourselves, I kind of feel like I don't really think of ways our abilities could help others. Maybe unless you think of it or bring it up to me first. Your goal for healing wounds even though we already have an insane healing factor? That's all you man."**

After thinking about Yami's words for a bit, Naruto raised his head, deciding he wasn't so down. Trust that Yami would know how to make him feel better.

 **"That's not it. I kind of get what would make you feel worse, so I say other stuff..."**

Yami stated in a flat tone. Staring at the dark youkai's face, Naruto saw that his darkness had a distant look in his eyes. Back when the mindscape was still a sewer, Naruto had seen the water's reflections of when he felt dejected, and right now Yami appeared to be in a similar state.

 **"Heh. I actually need you don't I? If you die, I die, but if I die, you...I don't think you'd die. I mean I'm only a piece of you and someone like me...maybe you'll be better off...Maybe you'll even get to be a good, light person if I'm not here. It would be better to be like that for our new family-"  
**

"Are you sure 'bout that?" Naruto himself didn't know, but he knew that he personally didn't want Yami gone.

"I don't want you gone Yami." The white youkai said out loud, in the belief that maybe Yami wasn't reading him at the moment. His darkness never seemed to do so when he was talking in a long winded fashion.

 **"Well, ok..."** The dark boy snapped out of his own funk and noticed Naruto's earnest mood.

 **"...and uh, to answer your question I don't know, it's a guess."**

Yami wasn't finished yet, wanting to get back on track.

 **"I don't know everything Naruto. But still, me? In control? Look how I originally thought about Hinata and Kara. Do you think I was making the right assumptions about them? Right now, even I don't believe so. I feel like someone like you is better for our precious people."**

"Yami, didn't you say in this world we should never let our guard down? You weren't wr-"

 **"-Stop. You don't have to keep trying to make me feel better."**

Yami interrupted, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

 **'When trying to cheer someone up, I fell and needed someone to do the same...How embarrassing...'  
**

"But you did for me! Now I want to do it for you too!" Naruto whined childishly.

 **"Yeah and I'm good now, let's just say I'm not as open to new bonds as you are and leave it at that."  
**

Yami smiled, canines flashing in a non-predatory way.

 **"I'll say it again though. You should be in control. You're doing alright, and I trust you."**

Naruto looked as if to say something, but Yami forestalled him with a raised hand.

 **"Letting me take over also isn't the issue. Me in control all the time would restrict you, thus waste your potential, which would be...stupid. Don't _you_ want to gain power? If I'm not in control... well right now I can do a lot of things...You get what I'm saying? I think the way we do things now is fine."  
**

"Ok..."

 **"Plus, I realized that when you go berserk, your fighting prowess grows much stronger. I don't necessarily get enraged at the same time, so I can sit here with a calm head as back up. Out of the two of us, I would rather be back up."**

"Why?"

Naruto said, honestly curious.

 **"Hmmm...ah, yes, like if you fall for a genjutsu. Then I can help you out! I probably could just take control to disrupt your chakra flow or something."**

The white youkai nodded at this, accepting this as something Yami could do.

 **"Plus as I said before, If you die, I die. Therefore in general, if you're in a pinch, I can do something about it. But if I'm in control and in a pinch? I can't do anything!"**

A moment of silence followed as Naruto thought something wasn't quite right about what Yami just stated.

"...If the second part ever happens Yami, I'll help you then."

The dark youkai had a strange look on his face following this proclamation, but shook it away.

 **"It's your body though."**

The black haired boy shrugged.

 **"Whatever, let's move on from this topic."  
**

The white youkai nodded with half a mind while silently alternating his gaze to the surrounding blackness and the dim white light. Naruto remembered (as mentioned by Yami) that he wasn't all dark, and now had a hunch why.

"Hey Yami, if you are my darkness, is there...my light?"

Said dark youkai blinked.

 **"Uh yeah,** **it was always there like me."  
**

Naruto smiled ecstatically hearing that. Another part of him to be with; sounds like he'll be even less lonely from now on. But wait...

"Where is he? How come you've never mentioned him before?"

Yami looked back uncertainly. **"Well...for one thing, I don't really know much about him. Also, he's in a coma of some sort."**

"What's a coma?"

 **"Like a really really deep sleep that you can't really wake him up from, believe me I tried. Actually, he's not breathing, so I don't think he's sleeping...It's more like he's just unresponsive. He's probably...I mean I think he's weak at the moment. Like, look at how dim this light is."**

"Oh..."

Naruto became crestfallen, and Yami quickly said.

 **"The light side doesn't appear to be going anywhere, so maybe we have to wait a bit for him to 'wake' up!"**

"Really?"

Hope relit in Naruto's eyes; Yami inwardly grimaced at the metaphorical sparkles coming out of Naruto's eyes, and tried to change the subject.

 **"Yeah. Uh, so anyway want to know what I've been getting up to? Or-"** Yami pointed to the root woman on the ground who was uselessly struggling the whole time, while the second Yami stood motionless over her.

 **-about that?"**

"Oh, yeah. So how is she...here? Didn't I...you know..."

 **"It's definitely not her real body, 'cause I did see you rip her to pieces and eat her."**

Yami suddenly turned around and beckoned Naruto to follow him. They walked a few steps into the darkness before it cleared up again to reveal another small space of dim light. In it lied a maskless, root-uniformed man with short, shoulder-length brown hair. He was nailed to the ground by several black lances as well, but unlike the female member, his blank face showed no signs of previous cracking, no tear trails, nothing. Naruto didn't even feel a hint of emotion from him.

 **"...It's not just her Naruto, apparently everyone we consume shows up again in here...well mostly everyone. You see, I think they're the manifestation of their souls or something. I mean, our mom didn't show up here after you...absorbed...her dead body so I'm pretty sure I'm right about them being souls."**

Naruto ran that over in his head a bit, before suddenly remembered who else they consumed, a certain giant fox to be specific.

 **"Yeah he's also here."** Yami looked thoughtful.

 **"I don't really get why or how it all works, but they get here. When they arrive though, it's like they're under my mercy..."**

The dark youkai grins viciously.

 **"...and I show them _none._ "**

He holds his hands out in a claw-like manner and stares down at them.

 **"I hate them so much, so I tried and am continuing any way possible to hurt them."**

Suddenly, as if something crossed his mind, Yami snapped his fingers and looks up.

 **"Oh yeah, some of those root guys did the whole T & I thing, and I got to say it looks super painful. They got a whole lot of ways to inflict harm without killing, which I think is pretty cool."**

The blackhaired boy nods to himself.

 **"I agree with it actually. These memories are convincing me that not killing people is somehow worse than killing people.** **Plus, fatal wounds and death lead to absence of feeling, which I don't want for them. I want them to suffer! Them feeling nothing means they won't. Why would I want their suffering to end? I use it on everybody here now, well actually just the torture part, 'cause there's no point in interrogating them since I know all their memories. I don't just use their methods though, I experiment.** **"**

Yami's pair of black fox ears straightened up on his head, which Naruto noticed had happened whenever his dark side had found or was about to reveal something good.

 **"In doing so, I discovered how doing this could benefit me besides a sense of satisfaction."**

The dark boy's smile widens.

 **"I actually can absorb the negative emotions of people other than you. It's another reason not to kill them and to keep torturing them, I suppose."**

Yami suddenly grabbed a lance that formed in his hand and stabbed it through another place on the root member's stiff body. Said ninja didn't give even a twitch. Naruto felt...unsatisfied at the lack of reaction.

 **"...But as you can see, they're not all responsive. I was only able to figure out I could absorb other people's dark emotions because of Hinoto back there and the Kyuubi."**

"Hinoto? Who is that? And because of the Kyuubi too?"

 **"It's the codename for the female root member from before. She doesn't remember her real name, which a significant fraction of root doesn't. Honestly, I don't have to tell you what it is, 'cause it doesn't matter anyway. And yes the Kyuubi. You know, it turns out that the fox was quite the playful spirit when it was young, but it gained a boundless amount of darkness and hatred over the ages from people, and then perpetuated evil acts of its own."**

From the edge of the darkness, another Yami entered the dimly lit space, dragging a thrashing Hinoto along, lances sticking out of her and all, while covering her mouth. The original Yami continued talking as if nothing happened.

 **"It just had sooo much negative stuff, so after we ate it, there I was thinking, what if I could...? And it worked! I could drain his darkness! And each time I make it feel pain it just quickly fills back up!"**

"Are you doin' it right now too?"

 **"Yeah you can't really hear it 'cause my dark stuff obscures sound, but the fox is totally roaring in pain even now."**

Yami chuckled, which was a deep rough sound, and made a cyclic motion with his hands.

 **"...Anyway, I'm made the whole pain thing into a routine. It's just crazy how awesome this is; to us, the Kyuubi really is a very important resource."**

Yami turned to the Hinoto and walked towards her, his dark clone stepping aside as he did so.

 **"Anyway, I can feel your curiosity on how I do it. Well, I usually just do it with my dark...you know-"** He gestures to the darkness around them **"-but if I did that now, you couldn't see anything...So here's a personal demonstration."**

Naruto made sure to watch very carefully as the dark youkai placed a hand on the root woman's head and pulled out a small dark cloudy mass.

 **"Aaaaah...Delicious..."**

Yami groaned in delight as the mass was absorbed in his body.

 **"I sort of feel this adds to the capacity of darkness. So I guess it can not only absorb chakra, but also emotional energy?"**

He mused aloud.

Meanwhile, Hinoto slumped over, lifeless, but resumed her muffled screaming when Yami's dark clone once again looked her in the eyes and covered her mouth.

 **"Anyway, as you can see, she can fill up too...but even then the Kyuubi is like 100000 times this rate..."**

Naruto was still occupied with the unresponsive...

 **"Kanoe."** Yami helpfully supplied.

"Why is he not reacting? Wait...you said it was just the Kyuubi and Hinoto who you could drain, so...why are the rest of them not reacting...? Doesn't this...hurt?"

 **"Anbu have a thing for blocking stuff out in case they get captured or something. I actually seen these people go through it. It's real nasty stuff."**

Naruto blinked.

"Then the Kyuubi...?"

 **"Yeah Kyuubi isn't trained to resist anything. Seriously, the stupid fox got caught under a genjutsu the night our parents died. Then again, why would it? Heh, others can totally use that to their advantage...Others like us..."**

Yami followed Naruto's gaze to the cracked root ninja.

 **"Ah right, so how did she crack...well let me start by saying that root takes the whole block stuff out thing to a whole 'nother level compared to the anbu. They're trained to have no emotions at all, so there would be _nothing to block out_ , 'cause they wouldn't feel anything in the first place. Naturally, as I have discovered here with Hinoto, it ain't foolproof."**

The dark boy chuckled.

 **"It's actually kind of funny; the very experiences that made her _'emotionless'_ are what I used to make her regain them."**

Naruto was initially puzzled until he remembered what the hell viewing technique had shown him. Another root member, dying...The pieces were beginning to come together.

"They...someone precious...-"

Yami gave him a thumbs up.

 **"Bingo. You caught on quick, but it's actually worse than that too. Root people basically form bonds tighter than siblings, and then proceed to kill each other. Brother against brother, sister against brother or sister or...you get the point. It's seriously messed up."**

The dark youkai shook his head and went off on a tangent.

 **"I hope the rest of the root ninjas will break under that memory as time goes on, if not I guess I'll try other things...It's only been a few days, after all..."**

As Yami continued talking, Naruto simply stood in shock. It all made sense now...yet it didn't. How could they do they do that to each other? The little boy himself couldn't imagine hurting one of his precious people.

 **"It certainly helps that they have a seal that forces them to obey (with a second purpose of safeguarding confidential information). But I guess that doesn't always work to having them kill each other though. I mean Hinoto's precious person, codename Hitsuji, decided not to fight, right? The seal is supposed to kill you if you don't obey, and in this case her heart exploded! Literally!** ** **Seals are real amazing man. Hmm... that might be why Hinoto broke and the others didn't yet. The rest of the root people we ate did kill their...you know."** **

Naruto's thoughts were again directed the black mark he saw on the root member's tongue. Could that be?

 **"Yeah the root have their seal on the back of their tongue-"**

With a jolt, Naruto realized where he had seen it before.

"Nono! She-"

 **"-is dead.** ** **I did want to break this to you...gently... or something, but in the end, it doesn't change what's being said. And y** es, she was a root ninja."**

Yami interjected, his head down with spiky black hair covering his eyes.

 **"We didn't eat her. She's been dead for a few months."  
**

Naruto stared wide-eyed.

"W-what?"

 **"The circumstances weren't exactly the simplest. I don't have her memories but...here, let me give you a rundown of her life using these..."**

An expanded image of a document appeared from the darkness. On the top-right corner, Naruto vaguely recognized what he thought was a picture of Nono. She looked very different: face blank, younger, and wore a root uniform. She still had the glasses, but overall the image clashed terribly with Naruto's memories of the kindly orphanage caretaker.

 **"She had a profile that was looked over a few times over the years** ** **by different root people we ate**. This one, as you can see from the date, is from a decade ago." **

Her name: Yakushi Nono. Codename: Miko. Height and weight. 21 years old. Some text on how she was root's top intelligence agent. Covers: Suna Jonin, Kumo medic, (and most recently) a captain of Konoha's medic corps. Naruto read this over, yet the information didn't quite reach his eyes.

 **"Yeah, it looks like we didn't really know her...No we did. It's more like we didn't know her past..."**

"She...How did she become..."

 **"An orphanage caretaker? Well it's simple. She quit."**

Yami said bluntly.

The darkness rippled and the document's appearance changed a bit. The date was two years later and there was "Monitored" stamped across it in bold red letters. It also listed her working at Konoha's Mayou orphanage, which Naruto knew was the orphanage he stayed at.

Yami caught the boy's stare at the red stamped word.

 **"Yeah...you can never really...leave ninja organizations like this. But still, it's pretty stupid. She still has the seal on.** **Then again** ** **she did basically tell us Konoha secrets (Our jinchuriki status) in a very roundabout fashion...** I guess you can't ever be _too_ paranoid..."**

The blackness transformed, and Naruto recognized all the tell-tale signs of a scene for a memory, but this one was frozen as it appeared. It was the first person view of two people sitting on wooden chairs at opposite sides of a table. He saw Nono's rather guarded eyes staring at a spiky black haired man Naruto could only see the back of, whose head was apparently bandaged. Two people, an old man with a gray goatee and a heavyset woman, stood behind Nono, both wearing tense expressions. They were dressed in the same orphanage staff garb Nono wore, and Naruto didn't recognize either of them. Strangely though, everything held a grayish tint to it.

 **"That's because the guy is wearing sunglasses."**

Yami gained a grin that spelled of spilling something good.

 **"Actually Naruto, do you remember that spidermasked root guy who kidnapped us originally?"**

"Yeah."

 **"His name is Aburame** ** **Tatsuma** , and we ate him! This is his memory!"**

A disturbing smile slowly made its way on Naruto's face.

"He's here then...So I can do whatever I want with him..."

 **"Yes yes, but right now let's pay attention here. This all took place about a year before we were born. Those two caretakers over there are, from left to right, Keiri and Kanpu. You've never seen them at the orphanage before because they died in the Kyuubi attack."**

"Really?" Naruto replied disinterestedly. Those people and their names didn't really hold any meaning to the white youkai.

 **"Mhmm. Oh, and on another note, we hated that orphanage Naruto, but as you'll see here...Nono thinks of it as a place to protect..."**

Naruto felt a little...conflicted at that, but Yami kept talking before he could think more about it.

 **"To our right and not in our vision is** _ **Orochimaru.**_ **The man seated at the table is** _ **Shimura**_ _ **Danzo**_ **, the creator of root and its leader."**

Yami said in a dark tone, Naruto darkening at each mention.

 **"Finally, Naruto, do you see that?"**

"Huh? What?" Naruto said, jostled from negative thoughts.

 **"Over there, by the window."**

He could see it. Someone (he could only see a bit of the face) was peeking in through the tiny slit opening of the window. Someone wearing glasses and...had pure gray hair?

 **"Yep. He is Nono's son, Yakushi Kabuto. Actually her adopted son; he lives with her in the orphanage."**

"Her son...Yami, just why are you showing me this?"

 **"It's a turning point in Nono's life, and not a very good one either. Here we go."**

Yami snapped his fingers and immediately, Danzo's gravelly aged voice perforated the air.

"...You were our most elite intelligence agent. You expect me to believe you lost track of everything as soon as you flew the coop...? We didn't come here to speak about Konoha's aid for this place."

Tatsuma, in an emotionless tone, spoke up.

"We are in a time of war, and we've obtained intel that Iwagakure is planning a large-scale operation."

Nono gasped lightly at this, her expression hardening as if she knew what was going to be said next before Tatsuma continued.

"We want you to infiltrate Iwa, and verify if our information is correct. And if it does turn out to be true, you are to investigate and uncover what this operation entails, and when and where it will occur, and then report back to us. It will likely be a long-term mission."

"Some things just stay with you huh..." Naruto murmured.

 **"Yeah...her connection with root is probably what she meant..."**

Nono stayed silent, while Kanpu's tenseness grew to anger.

"Don't you people get it?! Do you realize how important Nono is to this orphanage?! She's worked for us and protected this place with all her might!"

Yami gestured to Naruto as to say 'see I told you so'.

Keiri chimed in as well.

"Why don't you people handle your own dangerous missions! Why would you come all the way here to ask her-"

"-Because we can't trust anyone else to complete this mission."

Danzo interrupted while staring at Nono.

"We don't have a single agent who's more capable than you. Most get broken at some point, or defect to the enemy. I know that she would never sell us out."

 **"Truer words have never been spoken. But judging by my actual experience with them, I'd assume that the average breaking point takes longer than a few days..."**

Yami commented to Naruto, who nodded in response, with most of his attention still on the scene.

"Your face tells me you've already realized it too...Nono. That's right, if you refuse, then we won't pay another coin to this orphanage."

Danzo said.

 **"It's kind of weird for him to speak of refusing, but I guess it's just a facade, so that those two civilians don't know he basically controls her with the seal?"**

Yami conjectured thoughtfully.

"What?! But we had a deal with the 3rd hokage!"

"You think you'll get away with this?!"

Amidst the two caretakers' angry shouts, Tatsuma's toneless voice cut in.

"Seems like a thief would have no trouble getting here...I recommend you hire a bodyguard to protect your money. If you have enough money to do so, that is."

Orochimaru sibilated derisively.

"And you'd better be careful that none of your children get snatched, either. Children without any ties can be useful, you know..."

Naruto grew angry again at this statement. The small child had no trouble in identifying subtle threats. Orochimaru had mockingly spouted enough of them at him.

 **"It's not just us you know. Root used to kidnap kids at that orphanage all the time, at least until Nono went there. Come to think of it, now that she's dead now, they'll probably do it again."**

Based on what he saw of Keiri and Kanpu so far, Naruto found it hard to believe that they would just let the root do that in the past.

 **"Actually it didn't really matter how they felt. The root has Yamanaka people you see."**

"Yamanaka...that mind thingy clan you told me about?"

 **"Yeah, so the Yamanaka root people basically messed with the minds of the orphanage staff and kids over and over. We ate some Yamanaka guys who did do that, so that's how I know. Jutsu we have like the Mind Body Transmission Technique come from them..."**

Meanwhile, Kanpu's face reddened in fury.

"You rotten scumbags! You call yourselves shinobi?!"

 **"Shinobi are people who kill for money, and root guys go beyond that, killing for no money. Threatening an orphanage isn't exactly out of the picture..."**

Yami commented. Naruto shrugged. The boy hated ninjas, his parents and Nono excluded.

Danzo snorted.

"You need to wake up already. It's a small price to pay in order to protect Konoha."

"I...understand."

Nono said.

"It's because you could never fully kill your heart that you turned out this way. You really aren't suited for this, at your core."

Danzo said coldly.

 **"That's probably why she quit root and is an orphanage caretaker in the first place, but I guess Danzo just _had to say that._ " **

Yami said, rolling his eyes.

"How dare you speak that way!"

Kanpu shouted. It looked like anymore and the old man would leap at the root shinobi. A second passed before Danzo suddenly spoke.

"...Also, in order to get our information this time around, one of my subordinates died. I'm taking one of your children to replace him."

"How far must you go?! I just told you I would accept the mission!"

Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the normally calm Nono's outburst.

"This and that are separate. We'll be sure to give you your funding next time...In exchange for this time and one child."

Danzo said.

"Besides, how do you know none of the children don't want to become shinobi themselves...What could it hurt to ask? There may be at least one."

After this was said, Naruto noticed the eye peeking in narrow and then disappear. Suddenly the memory shifted to the scenery just outside the orphanage. Naruto saw two hooded figures standing in front of him and assumed they were Danzo and Orochimaru. At the doors to the orphanage stood Nono and a bespectacled grew haired child a few years older than Naruto walked towards the hooded root people.

"Why, Kabuto?"

Naruto could hear how upset Nono felt through her worried tone. Kabuto turned back, and the white youkai couldn't see what kind of expression he made as he replied.

"I have what it takes to be a good ninja...and I want to master medical ninjutsu."

The memory faded, reverting to darkness.

"So...Kabuto heard everything, and decided to be the kid taken so the orphanage could get money?"

Naruto thought aloud.

 **"It certainly looks that way doesn't it? Anyway her mission didn't end up being long as far as long term missions go. Nono went and came back to the orphanage a month later, 'cause I guess she was that awesome. She came back and Danzo basically told her what you just said."**

"What happened then?"

Yami frowned.

 **"Based on the memories of a root with him at the time, she begged. Begged for his release. It was weird to see, and made me really angry. Not at her though, but just angry. I'm not going to show you what it looked like."**

Naruto stayed silent, his hatred of Danzo growing.

 **"Danzo didn't say anything until a few years ago, where he finally agreed to for one condition. This was around where we last saw her in person."**

"What was the condition."

Naruto asked gravely. The boy distinctively knew that this was it; this would be the thing that got her killed.

 **"To infiltrate Iwagakure one more time and assassinate a double-agent, a betrayer of Konoha."**

"And she got killed by that person."

Naruto morosely guessed. He just hated this whole scenario, Nono's killer, the root, just everything about it.

 **"Mmmm. She did, but it's more complicated than that, crueler too. You see, the 'so called betrayer of Konoha' was actually Yakushi Kabuto, who was spying on Iwa for the leaf at that point."**

"Wha-? How did-"

 **"-I'm about to explain, let me finish."**

Yami sighed, and Naruto instantly quieted down.

 **"Apparently, both of them became too good as spies, and knew too much. Sooooo..."**

Two profiles showed up, Nono's (which content-wise, didn't change) and what Naruto knew must be Kabuto's, although the grey-haired boy looked older and was in a root uniform. His profile marked him roughly in the same specializations as his mother's: Infiltration and medical ninjutsu. Something particularly eyecatching however was the phrase 'To be eliminated' stamped in red across both of the documents.

 **"They were to be disposed of...shinobi are tools after all...Then again, I've never heard of getting rid of a tool for being too good at its job..."**

Yami trailed off, but upon meeting Naruto's eyes, focused again.

 **"Ah right. The preferred outcome was a mutual kill for them both, which didn't happen because Kabuto survived, and in order for the deadly confrontation to occur, they did this...-"**

A bunch of photographs materialized out of the darkness. Naruto could see that there was a picture of the young Kabuto as the first, and the next few were also him, but incrementally older. But as he got to the end, somehow the pictures morphed into someone that looked drastically different than the Kabuto in the root profile.

 **"-...in order for Nono to not realize that she was sent to assassinate the real Kabuto. The root had been sending these photos to her as proof that Kabuto was safe, but somewhere inbetween they switched him out for someone else. It's long term brainwashing, a standard root tactic. Incidentally, this fake Kabuto was also a root agent, and had died a week ago on a mission. Anyway, you know the rest. She went and perished. That's the end of the woman known as Yakushi Nono."**

"Nono..."

Naruto said sadly. He couldn't imagine it. A mother killing her child, and not even realizing it. Yet it was real. Another profile of Nono came up, this one with the status: deceased. The white-haired boy spent some time staring at it, not blinking. He knew that in his unbeating heart, Nono was someone he cared about. She was the only one in the orphanage who cared about him too. The orphanage that she protected, which Naruto sorely hated, just like the rest of the village. That train of thought felt so conflicting Naruto shifted his thoughts elsewhere.

"...She never did teach me how to seal stuff into scrolls..."

Yami could have said they didn't need her anyway, or that she was dead, but thought saying either of those was a bad idea. He stayed silent, and after a moment Naruto spoke up again.

"...So was Kabuto brainwashed in the same way? In any way?"

The small boy's voice was low, very low.

 **"Not that I know of, no."**

"...Did he become emotionless or something?"

 **"That's fairly hard to determine, seeing as I don't have his memories. Also, even when root people become emotionless, they still train to have quite convincing 'personalities' for infiltration and whatnot. So, hard to tell at a distance, but personally I feel he isn't emotionless, because of reasons I will get to later."**

Yami shrugged.

 **"Anyway I know why you're asking this. Look, even if Kabuto did recognize her, you got to keep in mind when ninjas assassinate someone, they don't just waltz up to them and show them their faces. The actual act itself usually occurs within a few seconds too. Most likely it was an instinctual reaction and then it was too late to do anything about it."**

"Tch."

Naruto wasn't really sure if he should hate Kabuto are not, and now he was even less sure. He already possessed extreme hate for root and Konoha. Nono's killer, regardless of being her son or not, was the last debatable factor for his hatred.

 **"Kabuto has a little more left in his story. You see, the root sent a ninja there in case one of them survived. That ninja was Orochimaru."**

"Wait...when you talked about Mokuton experiments, didn't you say Orochimaru left Konoha once they were found? It happened a few years ago too right? How could root send someone who left Konoha already? Who was deemed to be a traitor? Isn't root supposed to be...?"

Naruto wrinkled his brow in confusion.

 **"Good, you're thinking in the right ways..."**

Yami grinned contently.

 **"Danzo and Orochimaru have a working relationship, which is super secret information. So secret not even Konoha knows... **Actually, maybe we should talk about the organization as a whole first before we talk about this or Kabuto."****

And so began Yami's long dissection of Root. He explained that besides being a subdivision of anbu, the organization is super secret, and acts outside of Konoha's authority.

 **"It's _so_ secret Konoha basically knows nothing about its activities."**

He talked about the strict training, which included the kill your precious people part, all for a root to become a emotionless tool.

 **"It does make sense. You remember those shinobi rules right? In order to follow them, you'd _have_ to be an emotionless tool. Danzo's basically making _'perfect'_ ninjas that strictly follow them to the letter."**

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he realized that connection. His opinion on that profession dropped even further than it originally had been, if that was even possible. Yami then proceeded to talk about how the root guards its secrecy.

 **"You already know about the tongue seal, which is made of loyalty seals and all that other stuff. Root is also rather loosely connected."  
**

The dark youkai tipped his head in an acknowledging way.

 **"Danzo is pretty smart, these root people don't really know much about their group individually, but collectively they can paint a picture about it. For example, each root ninja we ate knew about a handful of hideouts (which are all over the place), but the one we were at was the only one that overlapped in their knowledge. That old fuck probably structured it in a way that only he knows everything, therefore losing a few root ninjas doesn't compromise the organization should they be interrogated, or in this case, eaten. However, each root ninja seems to have very indepth knowledge about Konoha and its infrastructure. Like its sensing barrier."**

Naruto thought back to how Yami had wanted them to jump off Konoha's walls at a certain spot in the air.

"So that's why...You know where the holes are in Konoha's sensing barrier."

 **"Yep. These root guys certainly don't enter and exit through those wide open gates."**

Nono's profile came into view once more, it was the first version that Naruto saw from before.

 **"There's something weird about root that I would like to talk about, something that seems pretty important."**

Yami's expression grew contemplative.

 **"Root is supposed to be for the good of Konoha, but there have been quite a few times where...it didn't do that, or had the opportunity to do so, but didn't take it. I have a theory. It's not for the good of konoha...it's for the good of Danzo."**

Such an idea didn't really surprise Naruto, and he looked back at the profile to see how it would tie in. Yami pointed to the section detailing Nono's covers, the Konoha medic captain part.

 **"She's not the only root member to do something like this, which begs the question: If root was for Konoha, why would it infiltrate the ranks of the standard forces? Konoha has no idea about this too."**

Naruto didn't really think too hard about it, he hated both Konoha and Root, and wanted to destroy them both. What difference did it matter knowing something like this?

 **"We could use this to...play one against the other, and make it easier to destroy them both? Right now Root is pretty entrenched in Konoha, but this kind of thing could shake their relationship up or something, separate them."**

Yami said matter-of-factly, shooting Naruto a look, to which the white youkai returned abashedly.

 **"I think Danzo's goal, or at least one of them, is to become Hokage. True, being chosen as successor is important, but the real judgment comes from the approval of the jonin, medic or otherwise. Danzo has been slowly seeding more of his root into their ranks, preferably for that purpose."**

Another profile appeared, containing the photo of a young man with long, unkempt brown hair reaching his shoulders. He had black, almond shaped eyes and wore a forehead protector that covered his forehead and cheeks. The paper stated that his codename was Kinoe, and was currently in cover as a Konoha anbu, but what Naruto particularly paid attention to was the info that he was a wood-user. He supposed that this guy was the surviving test subject the Sannin had mentioned.

 **"The root even had a fucking wood user. They could've used him to help out at the Kyuubi attack. Maybe our parents wouldn't have died! Sure he was ten years old at the time, but he was a root member wasn't he? He had skills then too! But noooooo. Apparently Danzo doesn't actually give a shit unless he was the Hokage!"**

Yami hissed, his voice laced with venom. Naruto's temper flared as well as he listened. The darkness morphed into a scene very similar to the white room Naruto remembered being experimented in. There was only one light in the room, casting a blinding glare onto a surgical table. The corpse of small boy lied upon it, an expression of pain and terror upon his face. Naruto didn't look away at the gruesome sight, having already had his body reduced to such a state before. A man the white youkai recognized as Orochimaru, dressed in a Konoha shinobi uniform, stood by the table, taking a pair of plastic gloves off. The person whose eyes they viewed out of (another root member, Naruto guessed), was in one of the dark corners of the room. To the right in the shadows Naruto could see the bandaged form of Danzo and another root member. Yami held a voice of apparent calm as he next spoke.

 **"Danzo's relationship with Orochimaru is another piece of supporting evidence, and here's an example from a year after we were born."  
**

"We must cease direct contact between us for the time being."

The root leader said, to which Orochimaru replied with an amused smirk.

"Did something happen?"

"Kakashi betrayed me. We'll separate to reduce the possibility that Hiruzen finds out...about this."

Naruto frowned at the unfamiliar name.

"Who is Kakashi?"

The scene froze, and Yami cupped his chin as if he was deliberating something.

 **"In root, there are a few people recruited who are already good ninjas. Orochimaru and Kakashi both fall under this category. They don't undergo the whole root training and emotion ridding thing."  
**

A profile materialized again, the name Hatake Kakashi on top of it. In the picture the man had spiky silver hair oriented to the left, and wore a mask covering everything from the nose down.

"Is he related to the Uchihas or something?"

The man had a sharingan in his left eye, while his right was a dark grey.

 **"Not that I'm aware of, but that's not his original eye Naruto, it's a transplant."**

As Naruto glossed over the document, Yami started talking.

 **"Known as Kakashi the copy ninja or friend-killer Kakashi-"**

"-friend-killer?"

Naruto suddenly interrupted.

 **"Yeah that name is a tribute to his ruthlessness and dedication to the shinobi rules, which I think is why Danzo recruited him in the first place. Remember rule 4? The one about putting the mission first no matter what? He got that moniker after he killed a close friend and teammate to complete one."**

Naruto already didn't like the sound of him. Yami waved his hand airily around.

 **"Ok, so enough of him for now...Anyway, Danzo plotted to have the third Hokage assassinated so he could take his place, and Kakashi thwarted that plot. That's what that old fart means by Kakashi betraying him. Still, Danzo seems to possess quite a lot of political power and influence to Konoha."**

"Huh? What makes you think so?"

 **"His plot to kill the old monkey bastard failed and Kakashi sold him out, yet right now it looks like he walked off scot-free. People have been executed for things a hundred times less. So, either he has tons of importance to avoid the chopping block, or the Hokage's an idiot. I think its the former."**

By now Naruto had read the whole thing and the profile promptly disappeared. Yami gestured to the scene, which became active again.

"Kukukuku...I see. Yes, the third Hokage learning about us would be quite...ruinous indeed. Already, I fear he is close to discovering this place and its secrets..."

Orochimaru sibilated with his wide grin. The scene faded to black.

 **"...Anyway, here's how Kabuto fits in in all of that..."**

An unfurled scroll appeared, filled with words that just didn't make sense when Naruto read them in order.

 **"These are ninjas we're talking about Naruto, it's coded. It's from Orochimaru too. A root guy we ate decoded it before passing it to Danzo, and it basically details that Orochimaru revealed the whole mutual kill plus brainwashing thing to Kabuto, and observed that it instilled 'a great hatred within him' against Konoha. Then it says he joined the snake sannin. Obviously, this kinda shows that he isn't emotionless, and most likely he hates the root too. It's just, it looks like both Danzo and Orochimaru are manipulating him as** ** **...a tool."** **

"Well, he is, uh, a shinobi."

Yami shrugged and pulled up Kabuto's most recent profile for Naruto to look at.

 **"...Now, he is no longer a root but Orochimaru's spy in Konoha. There aren't any records of root people available to Konoha so I guess he can just apply to the regular forces without anyone batting an eye..."**

Naruto quirked an eyebrow.

"So to root, what exactly is Orochimaru now? It doesn't sound like he is a member anymore..."

 **"Yeah, he certainly isn't Danzo's lackey anymore. He's a true traitor to Konoha, but keeps that connection with Danzo to use him and vice versa. In fact, they are collaborating together on a new deal to assassinate the third hokage. It looks like Orochimaru genuinely hates the third or something, while Danzo, as you know, wants the third dead. Their plan doesn't seem to have any concrete stages, but the general basis is that Orochimaru will do something big, with the secret support from root in the shadows. It sort of makes sense; if people knew that Danzo had a hand in the third's death, it would probably wipe out his chances for becoming Hokage. As for Orochimaru, he's a missingnin, doing bad things doesn't affect him negatively reputation-wise."  
**

"How far are they from...you know..."

 **"Hmm...the last decoded message from Orochimaru is that he is 'looking for opportunities' and 'building up his forces'** **...so it doesn't look like it's any time soon. At any rate, I kinda feel that now, I answered all your questions...from before..."**

Yami did a quick check of the real world surroundings. From the window, the view of night sky was not exactly pure black, excluding the stars.

 **"We have a few hours until day comes. What do you wanna do now?"**

Back in the mindscape, Naruto scratched the back of his neck. Just standing there thinking over what was just talked about didn't seem right. But wait...

With a new surge of energy, Naruto raced back to Hinoto and gripped her by the head, staring deeply into her pained eyes. In the process, the Yami's dark clone stood back, and the root shinobi's screams pierced the air anew.

"I wasn't done with Genjutsu anyways. Didn't you say there was a whole 'nother side to it? Like making them do stuff instead of just showing them things? Getting people to do whatever I want sounds awesome! Let's start on that!"

* * *

 **AN: TigrezzTail: Yeah, I have never seen any fanfic with Naruto going to Karin's family ever. For the head thing...In canon, there isn't really any definite reason explained for Minato sealing the Yang part into Naruto and not the Yin. Lol, as far as we know, he might have done so with no idea of what he was doing or had no control over what part was sealed. The reasons for him doing so in this fic will be revealed later and actually are quite simple. As for the Yin, it's literally the Kyuubi's dark half, so it's more aggressive and eviler than its yang counterpart in canon. Anyway, Yin is associated with mental energy and stuff like genjutsu sooooooooo... Smarter Naruto :/. Keep in mind he's about 6 years old, so he is pretty intelligent for his age. So yeah, lots of things going on, Yami wants to show Naruto stuff as much as possible for training.  
**

 **P.S. Guys, pls tell me which hidden villages you think contributed to Uzushio's destruction and why.**

 **Edit(2/25/2017): This took so long to write, and went places. I had an outline for this, but it just got longer and longer so I actually cut the original chapter for this into two. I'll post this one first lol.**

 **Review/Fav/Follow pls :/ (Or all three)**


	6. Parent

That morning after breakfast Kara told the new additions to the family that she had to go work, and that she would return by sundown.

"And here-" She brought out three red lunchboxes, placing them on the table. "All of you, eat this for lunch ok?"

Naruto stared at them, stunned for a second.

 **'She has seamlessly integrated us into her life...'**

Yami amazedly thought to himself.

"Thanks Kaa-san!"

Karin said cheerfully, snapping Naruto out of his funk, to which he hurriedly echoed her with as much sincerity as he could muster, Hinata following softly but firmly in the same moment. Kara wrapped a grey shawl around her shoulders and walked to the door. After smiling and giving them a small wave, she left.

The door swung shut, and Naruto stood there for a moment, not sure what to do. It turns out he didn't have to figure it out as not even a second later-

"Hey, wanna play ninja?"

Karin chirped excitedly. Inwardly, Naruto didn't really want to. Sure, he kinda understood where she was coming from, having seen kids play that stuff back at Konoha many times. But it always seemed stupid to him, given what he had seen real ninjas do in the memories or from just watching in the forest.

However, what came out of his mouth instead was:

"Sure. What do you think Hinata?"

The dark-blue haired girl shyly nodded.

"Alright! Follow me!" Karin happily yelled as she dashed to the door.

* * *

Given they left only a moment after Kara, the small whitehaired boy that didn't have any visible youkai traits at all (plus had his regular human eyes) spotted her not far from their house entering a white medium-sized building, 'Onanji Clinic' painted across it in big blue letters. It was only a glance, and then Naruto continued to lead Hinata in a run much like when they first met, in pursuit of Karin through the village streets. On the way Naruto passed the houses he had stolen from the previous day. He had a dark clone secretly return all that stuff (it wasn't anything he didn't have already anyway) that morning during breakfast. The village was pretty peaceful, and since Naruto supposed he was going to live there, he didn't really want to disrupt that peace with the discovered presence of a thief or anything.

Karin finally stopped after running past the edge of the small town, and into the midst of a large grassy field. It was a sunny and clear day, and the red-haired girl turned around and gave a bright big smile, not a bit out of breath after what could be no less than a full sprint.

"We're here!"

"So uh, what are we gonna do for this, sis?"

Said Naruto, who also wasn't tired at all, alternated his gaze between Karin, the sunny field, and Hinata, who was panting a bit. The hair on the back of Naruto's neck didn't prickle at all, which told the small boy that there were no eyes observing them. His emotion sensing and other accumulated sensing jutsus told him that there was someone watching them. There was a trace, a feeling, from a chakra signature that Naruto had come to associate with Kara's. It put him slightly more at ease.

"Big sis."

Karin said, adjusting her glasses and then resting her hands on her hips.

"Big sis?" Naruto echoed confusedly.

"Big sis."

Karin repeated childishly, beginning to pout.

 _'This isn't a big deal I guess.'_ Naruto thought, mentally shrugging.

 **"If it isn't then what's the harm asking her birthday to confirm it?"** Yami asked aloud, and Naruto found himself agreeing.

"Ok, when's your birthday?"

"Tomorrow! I'm gonna be six years old!"

Karin replied.

 **"June 20th? She's definitely older than us."**

Yami nodded to himself. Naruto's thoughts were on another matter.

 _'Tomorrow? Families are supposed to give each other presents on their birthdays right? So...So...'_

Naruto racked his brains for a present, trying to remember all the birthday parties he had spied on. In the meantime though:

"That's cool. So what do you wanna do playing ninja big sis?"

Karin opened her mouth as if about to speak, but closed it and seemed to think for a second before finally responding with a small amount of energy lost.

"I'm not sure. I never played ninja with anyone before."

 **"That's great actually, the whole play ninja stuff is stupid pretend anyway. Why don't you just show them how to do real jutsus and stuff. In fact, l** **et's copy down one or maybe more of those ninjutsu scrolls they use to train young root kids as her birthday gift."**

Yami proposed, already locating all the unfurled ninjutsu scrolls in the memories.

 _'Heeeey...That's a great idea! Thanks Yami!'  
_

 **"Mmhmm."**

"Well, I have an idea on how to play."

Naruto said, already thinking of a jutsu to use.

"What is it?"

Karin asked curiously.

"We try to do ninja stuff...like this."

Naruto clapped while facing away from them and a small gust of wind blew forth, growing progressive larger the longer it left his hands. After a distance twelve paces away, the wind current collapsed, the only trace being the flattened length of grass in its wake. Naruto didn't want to make too much of a ruckus and Karin saw all of that pretty clearly.

"Whoa..."

Karin trailed off, speechless. The blind Hinata merely stood around confusedly, only feeling the wind pick up a bit on her skin.

"Are you a ninja?!"

The redhaired girl burst out, filled with questions for her new little brother. The small girl remembered when she had felt two of him in different places the previous day, and his soft foxy parts...which he didn't have now. Looking into his eyes, she finally noticed that his eyes had bright blue irises with white sclera, instead of being entirely spiraled. She assumed he must have transformed, just like a ninja would.

 **"Yeah, it looks like most kids think ninjas are super cool, and Karin is no exception."**

Yami commented idly.

"No, I just know how to do ninja stuff. I'm a kid, just like you."

Yami snickered as Naruto made his reply. Karin didn't really look any less impressed though, if anything she looked more.

"Wow...Ok, let's do that! I don't really know how though. How do you do that?"

"...I want to learn too."

Said Hinata, who had stayed quiet and listened, now knowing a bit of what was going on.

Now where to begin? As he thought about it, Naruto was reminded of the times he tried to learn stuff from people he didn't eat, like that tree making thing.

 **"I don't think they can learn that, but yes, they probably can't learn things instantly like us through eating people. You're right, starting from the bottom sounds best..."**

"Ok, to start...

* * *

The three children were a little farther away from the village now, still in the grassy field, as Naruto wanted to show a few jutsu to them as a start, ones that he and Yami had reasoned that they could learn. A small version of a jutsu from each of the five elemental transformations, the medical jutsu that made your hands glow green, and a harmless illusion of fake tall grass.

 _'Everybody could learn all of that, right? Even for the whole chakra nature thing, didn't leaf jonin have to master a elemental type that wasn't their nature? So it isn't impossible for them...?'_

 **"Yeah. This kind of stuff just depends on how much time someone puts in, and their talent...and maybe other extenuating circumstances...maybe."  
**

Most of the sample jutsu in Naruto's brief showcase were more something viewed by the eyes, so in Hinata's case he used a genjutsu to show her. This resulted in the blind Hyuga girl's great surprise as it appeared that she could 'see' again.

 _'You know, why don't we just do this all the time for her?'_

Naruto thought aloud. Yami quirked an eyebrow in response.

 **"Are we gonna be next to her all the time for this? Having to account for each and every little change in her surroundings? Sure you could use dark clones to do it, but the fact remains that she doesn't have eyes."**

 _'Oh, right.'_

After the short display, Naruto began with a short definition of chakra before introducing the twelve basic handseals to them.

"So this is the dog sign right? Am I doing it right?"

Karin called out unsurely, placing her left hand flatly on her right fist.

"Yep!"

Naruto called out encouragingly while he helped Hinata make the same shape, taking her smaller hands in his. After going through them all and explaining their purpose in determining the exact amount of chakra for jutsus, Naruto moved on to chakra control exercises.

 **"So how about the leaf concentration exercise? We don't actually have to use a leaf for it, you know."**

The whitehaired boy reached down and picked three long blades of grass. Karin questionedly looked back as Naruto handed her one.

"What's this for?"

"You're gonna place it on your forehead, and concentrate your chakra to keep it sticking there, like this..."

The small boy placed the strip of green on his brow, and shook his head around for emphasis, the strip firmly staying on.

"Oh, I see what you're doing."

The redhaired girl stuck her own grass on her forehead and looked down almost immediately after. The thin piece of green didn't fall and Karin, beaming more confidently, looked up to the blue sky with her eyes closed. The stalk of grass floated up a bit and rotated slowly above her.

"Moving around the blue stuff in me for something easy like this is...easy! Look! Aren't I doing something way more awesome?"

Naruto looked at her searchingly and came up with a thought based on what she had alluded about herself.

 _'Oh yeah she's a sensor...who I'm guessing can sense her own chakra too? I guess if you're more aware of your energy or something like that it makes things easier huh?'_

 **"In any case, it's evident her chakra control is...really good...like really really good. She knows the handsigns and can control her chakra pretty well; why not let her try a jutsu?"**

Yami appraised with an impressed look. Such a level of chakra control was rare, even for the root shinobi they had eaten. Naruto agreed with his darkness's idea and slowly went through the handsigns for Futon: Great Breakthrough for Karin to see.

"It doesn't matter how fast you do these, just that you gotta do them right. It's about to be your first try too, so don't rush."

Naruto carefully advised. Karin turned to another direction and began to weave each handseal, looking down to make sure she made each one correctly.

"Futon: Great Breakthrough!"

She yelled out. No gust of wind came forth, and the girl tilted her head.

"Huh? Nothing happened, and I feel a bit tired now."

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably.

"Well, it means you messed up. If you mess up a jutsu, not only does nothing happen, but also you lose the chakra needed to perform the technique."

"Is that so. No big deal. I'll try again!"

Karin adjusted her glasses again, her voice flowing with optimism. Meanwhile Hinata had taken to the leaf concentration exercise, her grass sticking as if it was glued to her forehead. Naruto almost offered help her with the handseals of the jutsu too, but he sensed that she was super focused, even having sat down crosslegged on the ground.

 _'She's on to something; I won't disturb her.'_

 **"Hyuga's have a thing with sending chakra out of the body, so she might be working on shape transformation? Using this exercise to do it? I mean didn't she use shape transformation on us before when she did a palm thrust on us?"**

Hours passed quickly like this. When the sun reached its highest point in the sky, Karin dropped her arms to her sides panting, exhibiting visible fatigue.

 _'Should we have made her do the leaf cutting thing first?'  
_

Naruto sweatdropped. He had literally watched Karin huff and puff out breaths nonstop, doing the same handseals over and over without success.

 **"But this jutsu is more like a squall or something, like blowing things away. Not the cutting and slicing aspect of the wind release."  
**

The dark youkai sighed.

 **"I dunno, maybe this just isn't her affinity?"**

 _'But wind is useful!'_

The white-haired boy piped up.

 **"You just like it Naruto. Regardless, maybe she should try a differ-"  
**

"-Let's go home. It's lunchtime and I'm starving!"

Karin yelled out as she regained her breath, unknowingly cutting into the boy's mental banter with himself. Naruto looked over to Hinata, who he could see was gently emitting some sort of small air distortion out of her upturned palms in a repetitive rhythm, causing the blade of grass float up and land on her hands repeatedly.

 **'It looks to be the Hyuga's Air Palm...a tiny version of it...'**

Yami affirmed to himself quietly. Having heard Karin's voice, the girl with darkblue hair rose to her feet, and slowly made her way to Naruto, silently grabbing his hand. Karin saw this and frowned.

"Hey, don't leave me out!"

The redhead ran up and cheekily took Naruto's other hand. Naruto's expression morphed into a grin, feeling really...warm. In the seal, Yami blinked in surprise.

* * *

The three children walked back home (Karin didn't take off in a run due to fatigue), Naruto discovered some sort of omelette looking thing covered in what looked like to be shredded cabbage in the boxed lunches. Karin looked real happy to see it though.

"Okonomyaki, my favorite food! Thanks mommy!"

After lunch, they went back to the field, where they would stay until sundown. In that time, Karin, who seemed to regain a huge chunk of energy from lunch, finally was able to breath out a small current of wind that didn't even look like it could knock someone off their feet. She took Naruto to play a bizarre yet fun version of tag, where they would aim the Great Breakthroughs at each other (Naruto expelling it out in a harmless version as well). An hour before sundown, Hinata joined in as well, shooting out small Air Palms that only left a soft impact instead of a Futon jutsu. Despite being blind, she proved to have a pretty good sense of balance too, and tended to slide just barely to the side each time. All in all, the three kids had fun.

In the distance, the sun slowly sank into the horizon, and Karin abruptly stopped in her tracks. She turned to face the village, where a smiling Kara could be seen in the distance walking towards them.

"It's time to go home everyone."

Said the redhaired woman, before the three children were promptly by her side.

"Kaa-san! Kaa-san!"

Karin called excitedly.

"I learned a ninja technique today! I went phooosh! Did you see? Did you?"

Kara seemed to become lost in thought at that, something Naruto took note of.

"Yes, I did. It looked like you had a lot of fun."

"It wasn't really fun in the beginning, but I didn't give up. It was interesting!"

The little redhead beamed proudly.

"Good girl."

Kara gently patted her daughter's head, though her face clearly showed her mind was elsewhere, which Karin didn't notice.

"Heehee..."

 **"Assuming both of them have the same sensing ability, it is clear that such a power is more powerful than the sensing techniques we've collected. After all, it saw through our chakra-erased, invisible disguise. And now, if we take Karin's words at face value, it means that they can 'see' what they sense? Or view a target's perception?"**

Yami thoughtfully analyzed.

 _'Both sound really cool, but I'm more worried about why mom's like that right now. Was it a mistake to do this ninja stuff?'_

Naruto fretfully thought aloud. Yami already had a couple ideas (negative and pessimistic ones), but kind of knew that each one would only bring pointless anxiety to Naruto. In truth, Yami liked this family thing they had now, but in the event things were to turn sour, it would help bring Naruto over to the dark youkai's belief that they needed no one but themselves. If nothing would happen and they could keep living this way, well great. It was a win win, so the dark youkai decided to wait and see what Kara would do.

 **"I truly...am not a hundred percent certain."**

* * *

Dinner was sort of quiet. Karin was animatedly chatting with Hinata, who was a lot less energetic, but Kara seemed contemplative the whole time, and Naruto discreetly watched her in the corner of his spiral eyes. The white youkai knew already that there was no sort of ninja force in the village. Could it be that ninjas, ergo ninjutsu, was not allowed? Or mayb-

 **"We are obviously non-human, and she took us in. Calm down, and stop making far-fetched assumptions."**

Yami stated tersely. Hearing this, Naruto gradually calmed down. As it turned out, after dinner and all the dishes were put away, their mother's light lavender eyes cleared as she rejoined her seat at the low rise table. She didn't inquire about Naruto's background, or about ninjutsu, or look displeased. Instead...

"Karin, today you will practice."

The redhead girl's eyes shined.

"Oooh! Are we doing that again?!"

"Yes, but we will also help your sister 'see' on her own."

Naruto could hear the resolve in his mother's voice. Karin remembered yesterday when she had asked about Hinata's blindfold, and only to be delicately told by her mother that her new sister was blind.

The Hyuga girl was at a loss, not really sure what they were talking about when Karin grabbed her hand, Kara extending her arm across the table and gently taking her other hand. Naruto watched carefully as Kara and Karin interlocked fingers with their remaining hands. Immediately, Naruto sensed something happen to the spiritual half of their chakra. It was as if each of the three's spiritual energy was linking at the hands starting from Kara, and the white youkai could feel a halcyon aura emanating off of them. Yami's eyes widened, even unconsciously muttering out.

 **"...What?"**

 _'This isn't the chakra transfer jutsu. It seems different...way more powerful than the sensing transmission technique...just what is this?'_

The boy had never seen anything like it.

 **"This...is Ninshu."**

Yami said quietly in a stupefied tone.

 _'And that is?'_

 **"It's a name no one remembers because it has been long forgotten by man...It was a system long long ago where one would connect their spiritual energy with others in order to gain a better understanding of themselves and those they did it with. It was supposed to create peace, and did succeed...at least until mankind corrupted it with hate and violence...and grudges...and greed. You know, typical human evil. All that bad stuff now takes the form of the system we call...ninjutsu."  
**

Yami explained, eyes still on the handheld trio. From that explanation all Naruto gathered was:

 _'Wow. A power lost to the ages? Mom is reaaaally awesome. Anyhow, I think I know what they're doing now. They're trying to share their sensing thing with Hinata, aren't they?'_

 **'Seems to be the case.'  
**

Kara spotted the white youkai's perked ears and face filled with curiosity. She smiled and let go of Karin's hand.

"...Thank you..."

Hinata quietly said as the pleasant atmosphere disappeared.

"...Naruto, join us as well would you?"

Kara said, holding out her open arm. At this, Karin's crimson eyes lit up.

"Yeah! Come do it too, lil' bro!"

Yami suddenly spoke up.

 **"Naruto, once you go in there, they can probably sense me, so I'll keep quiet and hide my presence as best I can."**

 _'Huh? Why?'_

 **"So I don't freak them out?"  
**

Yami stated pragmatically. Naruto mentally raised an eyebrow. The small boy remembered their conversation and last night and decided:

 _'You're a part of me, a part of the family too. Don't hide Yami. 'Calm down, and stop making far-fetched assumptions', remember?'  
_

 **"I am calm, it's just...to all intents and purposes, I'm like your split personality. People don't really get those from _happy_ experiences, and Kara seems to be a clinical health worker of some sort..."  
**

Naruto mentally grew tense, although his facial features showed none of it.

 _'I...I don't want to hide anything in private Yami...and doesn't she already know about my pain thing?'_

 **"Alright, fine."**

 **'If anything I guess I don't want them to find about my torturing...fetish...Can't imagine how that would play over well.'  
**

The dark youkai thought privately as he stepped into the seal, knowing that the root people and the Kyuubi were so heavily obscured by his darkness, and that the seal is the constant forefront of Naruto's mind. The small youkai took his sister and his mother's hand and instantly felt his vision split. No, it didn't split, it was more like he gained a new abstract sense of the world. One that saw in all directions in a relatively close proximity, but bathed the world in grey. He could 'see' through walls, with only a faint outline that they were there. What really caught his 'eye' was three completely blue shapes and one that was a mixture of blue and black, that seemed to match the outlines of himself and his family. He saw two of the smaller blue shapes jolt a bit as if in surprise, while the third larger one seemed to be in alarm.

 **'They can even sense the tiniest of chakra fluctuations. That's...amazing'**

The dark youkai thought to himself, impressed.

"Who is that mommy? He looks a lot like lil' bro!"

Karin's voice seemed to speak, except it didn't seem like she was speaking in a physical sense.

"I...don't know."

To the three of them, somewhere in their minds they suddenly had a mental picture of a gigantic yellow cage, surrounded by nothing but inky blackness, and a small blackhaired boy standing by one of the bars, a pair of fox-ears on his head and ten furry tails waving behind him.

Before Naruto could say anything, Yami beat him to it.

 **"Hello, my name's Yami."**

He tried to sound as friendly as possible, but the effect was somewhat ruined by his rough voice.

 **"Uh, I...I'm...in Naruto's mind."**

The dark youkai inwardly cringed at how lame he said it. Two seconds of silence was broken by:

"Mommy, does this mean I have two brothers?"

Yami 'saw' Kara's chakra die down to a more stable state.

"Hmm...Yes, I believe it does."

He felt Karin metaphysically approach him in the seal. Her chakra was still oscillating at an erratic rate.

"Nice to meet you Yami, I'm Karin!"

 **'Really, what was I worried about? They're rather simple.'**

And the dark boy didn't mean it as an insult, feeling a stirring in his chest, his face gaining a sincere fanged grin. Naruto smiled at their interaction, but focused his attention to Kara, who seemed to be telling Hinata something.

"...Even if you cannot see with your eyes, you can use the vision of your mind...Focus...Concentrate on a place between where your eyes would be...Open...your mind's eye..."

Naruto saw some of Kara's spiritual energy migrate to the aforementioned place on Hinata's forehead. Interest sated, he felt like exploring the extent of Kara and Karin's sensory ability. He focused beyond his immediate surroundings, and 'saw' more blue shapes of all sizes around the village and beyond into the surrounding forest. Humans, trees...every living thing he saw had the blue stuff in them. He accidentally focused on what looked to be some sort of bird on a treebranch and the world of grey disappeared for a short moment, revealing a hooting owl and its surroundings in full color. Eventually he just decided to push his mental presence as far as it could go...

Meanwhile, Yami, who saw what Kara and Hinata were doing in the corner of his eye, posed a question to Karin.

 **"So, was this mind eye thing something you've awakened too?"**

"Oh, that's just what mommy calls it. I've always been able to do this, you know!"

Yami could feel the pride in her non-voice.

 **'Interesting...'**

About an hour later, Naruto felt the connection cut off, his attention in the grey forest now fully coming back to the wooden interior of the cottage, his family around him.

 **"The range we were unable to determine...the exceptional detail to chakra, I guess you could even determine their emotions based on the fluctuations...viewing the target's surroundings...This ability surpasses any of our sensing techniques."**

Yami concluded.

 _'...Yeah...'_

Acknowledged Naruto, his eyes on Kara, who was looking at the clock on the wall. 7:27.

"There is one more skill you will try, one you have never done before Karin."

The redhead lady said, her voice laced with tiny bit of indecision, that neither Naruto nor Yami missed.

 _'Is this what she was thinking about? It doesn't sound like she wants to...show this?'_

 **"Let's see what it is first."  
**

Karin waited in place, but her enthusiasm was evident through her wired body language. Kara rolled up a sand-colored sleeve and a five-linked golden chain appeared in her grip. Naruto's eyes widened at how similar it was to a certain someone's spiked chains.

 _'That's...that's...'_

The small boy looked to a rather unsurprised Yami.

 **"Well, maybe all redheads aren't Uzumaki, but I did consider this a possibility."  
**

With a start, Naruto finally noticed how _'She never told us her family name...'_

 **"Root info says: Survivors of destroyed clans like ours are hunted down for a variety of different reasons...Isn't really different from the clan war era and the 'no revealing your surname rule'..."  
**

Yami stated bluntly.

 **"...The question is, what does this revelation mean to you?"**

 _'They are even more special to me.'_ Naruto felt that was the case, somehow. The small boy felt an overpowering urge to inform them that he too was an Uzumaki. A desire to connect to them even further than before. With that in mind, Naruto cast a genjutsu on Kara, a picture of his mother (Kushina) forming in his hand.

"I...I'm...I'm also..."

Kara wordlessly looked at it, and back into Naruto's shock and longing-filled eyes, seeming to understand perfectly what he was trying to say.

"You're already my son Naruto..."

The small boy's eyes felt wet at her simple words, and he threw his arms around her. They kept at learning the chain thing after Naruto's little emotional moment, but none of the children succeeded in it.

* * *

It was nighttime, and everyone was sleeping in the connected futon again, after taking a bath together. Naruto, the only one secretly awake, didn't really feel embarrassed from that experience, having been stripped bare for those root people enough to not really feel conscious about that sort of thing. The small boy had just finished having a dark clone write up ninjutsu scrolls for each element, and one for justus like the replacement technique that didn't fall in any element. He would do it himself, except the original him was currently being squeezed by a sleeping Karin, and didn't want to move. The white youkai put all his attention back into the mindscape after the clone dissipated into black fog and reentered his body. He assumed that tonight would go for genjutsu training again.

Yami was waiting, but this time he stood outside the seal while facing it. The dark youkai looked quite pensive, and had peeled back the darkness at the entrance of the seal, standing in a rather large space of dim light. Naruto walked out and saw that Yami was staring at the paper holding the word 'seal' high above on the centermost thick bars.

 **"You know, before we do genjutsu, I just would like to think about this for a little bit."**

Yami said as he gestured to the cage with hand.

 **"What's the point of this now? It's purpose is gone. We ate the Kyuubi. Why not...study this to develop our fuinjutsu further?"**

Naruto understood where this was going.

"We could make a better one!"

 **"Yeah. This has obvious flaws to it, like the stupid width between these bars. We could rectify this in a seal of our own making..."**

And so they began. Yami conjured an image of their seal, the spiral on Naruto's stomach, stating that each one didn't necessarily have to take the same form in a mindscape. Naruto distinctly remembered how his mother's seal was just the Kyuubi heavily chained and pierced on a giant rock.

"For our version, we should have this be...a giant bug screen! With the spacing the size of a regular bug screen's."

Naruto proposed, slapping one of the bars.

 **"That's a good idea, but how are we gonna open it if we want to?"**

"Open it? What do you mean?"

Yami pinched the bridge of his nose.

 **"This is a gate. You do this-"**

The dark youkai leapt up and ripped the paper off the centermost bar, revealing an intricate spiral lock on it.

 **"-and as you can remember, dad left the key to this now pointless lock with that scroll toad. But we have the memory of the actual text on that scroll toad thing too so that doesn't matter either. If we break this we should be able to slide all these bars to one side like a-"**

Yami stopped midsentence, and both youkai turned around as one, having sensed a presence behind them out of nowhere. Naruto took a sharp intake of breath at what he saw. A spiky blonde haired man stared at them, his face full of regret. Yami's spiraled eyes traveled to the man's white jacket decorated in flames, the rest of the standard Konoha uniform, and to his bright blue eyes.

 **'I don't remember dad saying he would seal his chakra into me...'**

Yami thought, paranoid and skeptical. He willed the darkness behind his 'father' to slowly, sneakily creep forward behind him.

In contrast, Naruto grew super excited, wearing the biggest grin of his life. He didn't know how this could be, but at the moment, he didn't care.

"Dad!"

The small boy happily shouted running forward before leaping towards the blond man in a flying hug tackle. The man caught him and returned the hug fiercely.

"...I'm sorry Naruto...Sorry for everything...I've done nothing but cause trouble for you, nothing but give you a life full of pain..."

The man relinquished his grip, his tone growing fainter, his hair shadowing his face a bit.

"...What can I even do now?...Soon, my chakra will fade away...Maybe I shouldn't try to act like a father now that I'm apologizing..."

Now that he mentioned it, Naruto noticed that the blond man's outline was flickering, and looked slightly see through.

 _'What? How would he know about my life? Could_ **he have been aware of what went on outside the seal, but was simply held by that strip of paper?'**

Both youkai had the same thought, and it was then that Yami believed that yes, this was his father, and halted the darkness's approach. The dark youkai sprinted forward, placing a hand as high as he could reach on his father's chest. Minato looked rather surprised as this happened, but didn't move a muscle.

 **"You're not going _anywhere._ "**

Yami growled possessively. His hand coated with a black aura which absorbed itself into Minato's body. Naruto gave a start of realization.

 _'Oh yeah. The chakra transfer jutsu!'_

The white youkai was quick to mirror Yami, his hand pulsing a vibrant blue. After they saw Minato's form stabilize, they stopped their output, stepping back in sync.

"Dad, I don't blame you. You tried your best!"

Naruto tried to convey as much candor in these words, giving his dad a big grin, eyes closed. The memory of his father getting impaled flashed painfully behind his smile. Yami opted to instead stare right into Minato's eyes and simply said:

 **"I don't blame you."**

 **'I blame... _others...that I will exact vengeance from...forever...'_**

The blond man looked stunned with disbelief for a moment, before enveloping them both in a tight embrace.

 **'Wow, these past few days have just been more and more family...bits and pieces at a time.'**

The dark youkai mused reflectively, looking deeply into the darkness over his father's left shoulder.

 **'What's next? Long lost uncles or aunts?...Or...'**

He smirked.

 **'...grandma?'**

* * *

 **AN: Ok, so part 2 of the split chapters. That root talk just went so long when I realized how many canon plots could be revealed lol. Whatever.**

 **Also, I was kinda uncertain if I should've had Minato (Mind version or whatever the heck he is supposed to be) join this early, but...*Shrugs***

 **As a recap: Mind Kushina got crushed by Yin Kyuubi. I kinda made that decision after thinking about how she appeared in the cage after Naruto opened the gates in canon, while Minato appeared outside the cage.** **Also, about Minato knowing about Naruto's life...that's the impression I got in canon during their first meeting together in the seal. How else would he have known about Jiraiya's death? If that's not the case and my memory is all shotty, Idc. That's how its gonna be in this fic.  
**

 **In this chap, I portrayed Karin differently than in Canon because she's a kid too. There's also the fact that she has her mother around too. So I tried to mould in innocent and childlike qualities while retaining her canon stubbornness and bossiness. I think she's too young for the whole swooning for men thing, so I left that out and anything connecting to it. Looking it over now, she seems a bit to similar to Canon Naruto. Just a bit though. Oh and the handholding thing for Karin, it doesn't really foreshadow any real future romance with Naruto. Probably helps with sibling bonding though.**

 **Review/Fav/Follow pls :/ (Or all three)**

 **TigrezzTail: They will use it...or maybe...someone else will. That's all I'm going to tell you. Don't want to spoil too much.  
**

 **Banjo the Fox: How's this lol.**


	7. Rain's Fateful Encounter

It was still night; Naruto and Yami were still working on their own seal after the euphoria of their father's presence wore off a bit. Through some excited smalltalk- Basically just Naruto firing off questions to their father along the lines of "Hey, so how much do you know about me?"-Yami, who was merely listening, was able to work out that Minato was only aware of literally everything outside of the seal and in it, Naruto's thoughts, plus the weird memory viewing experiences of the Uzugan. Not that their father knew that _that_ specific memory observation was caused by their dojutsu; Naruto had filled him in on that tidbit, which prompted the whitehaired boy to then curiously ask Minato about his present condition.

"-Do you have any idea what happened to me? Have you seen this before?"

"...No I do not, although I did hear your brief mention of youkai...I have not seen anything like this before...Sorry for not being of more help..."

The blond man uttered in a remorseful tone, almost as if he was also apologizing for something else. Rueful blue irises traveled to Naruto's white twitching fox ears and back to his ten long slowly swaying tails.

"It's alright!"

Naruto could feel the...guilt?...emanating off of his dad, and thus tried to sound as spirited as possible, trying to show how he wasn't bothered by his change. It wasn't an act either; the small boy actually thought he was better off now thanks to his...metamorphosis.

The father and son pair continued talking, but the pace of the conversation clearly wasn't as fast as before. Meanwhile, Yami had inferring thoughts of his own.

 **'...Based on what _isn't_ being said...he isn't privy to what goes on in the darkness of this mind space, nor what I'm thinking...he doesn't know what I showed Naruto nor what we discussed because...the darkness obscures sound... _I can do things there with dad being none the wiser_ -'  
**

As this notion crossed his mind, the dark youkai caught his train of thought.

 **'Wait why am I thinking in this manner? He's my father!'**

It was one of the traits that defined him, he supposed. On further thought, Yami shrugged.

 **'...Well, as long as I don't do anything to hurt him even though I have such negative idiosyncrasies...and what he doesn't know won't hurt him. Besides, I don't think that with my nature, I can keep being a goody two-shoes for dad all the time in the forseeable future...I'll need... _relief._ "**

The dark boy mentally grinned, and upon feeling that Naruto was beginning to falter, began voicing his questions.

 **"So...what's the secret here? Weren't you sealed by that death god or whatever the heck he was? What unleashed you dad? Where were you before?"**

The dark youkai was immensely curious about the idea of sealing a piece of yourself in someone else...and who better to ask about this than the man who cast the seal himself?

"I was to be released on two conditions: if you ever manifested an eight tailed state-"

"-What is that?" Naruto interrupted while he started drawing crude pictures of flynets and other types of screens.

 **'...Oooh yeeaaah...I didn't get around to talking about this yet...particularly because I didn't think it applied to us anymore...'  
**

The dark youkai decided to say nothing, still keen to probe the extent of Minato's knowledge of...everything really.

"Through past records...Jinch-"

The blond man stopped midword, hastily correcting himself. Yami's eyes glinted, catching that Minato slipped while trying to avoid saying the Jinchuriki designation.

 **'Maybe because of what it would imply? He probably knows that we _haaate_ Konoha...and in our case, the word means that we were _sacrificed_ for the good of that village. Signifying us as one would be...not tactful, in the very least.'**

"-I mean people who had a tailed beast sealed inside of them...they were reported to be able to draw on the power of their tailed beast in the form of a chakra cloak surrounding them. The more power drawn upon the more tails would appear."

The yellow flash looked up, and Naruto followed his gaze to the spiral lock on the gate.

"The second condition was if you tried to break the seal. That piece of sealing paper was supposed to serve as an alert, and if anything happened to it my chakra would be released from the seal, in order to restore it or...aid you in some way."

Minato's determined ocean blue eyes met his son's excited blue spirals.

"So seals can be set to do even that?!"

"Of course. All that and much more. I may not be as proficient as your mother, and you seem to know a few already, but I will teach you all I know."

* * *

"Aaaaargh!"

Karin yelled out in frustration as she lied in her futon. That morning after putting on her glasses, the little redhead found she that she just couldn't get out of bed, her whole body feeling super sore. Kara had looked her over and said that Karin's circulatory system had caught up with strain from yesterday's activities, but that it was nothing serious. The Uzumaki woman had given her daughter a kiss on the forehead and told her to rest at home for the day, requesting that Naruto and Hinata help look after her.

"Of course!"

"Y-yes...!"

Before leaving for the clinic, Kara had told them all that she would personally be coming back for lunch to physically check up on them. After her departure, it didn't take long for Karin to become restless.

"The _whole_ day inside? It's my birthday too!"

Naruto sat against the wall in the same room, feeling a bit guilty.

 _'Maybe we should've stopped her from going too far with the wind jutsu training...'  
_ Before Yami or Minato could say anything, Karin felt her brother's chakra flutter a bit in distress and quickly responded first.

"Actually, staying inside might not be a bad thing."

She turned her head to a nearby bookshelf, pointing at it.

"Lil bro Naruto, could you hand me the first book to the left on the middle shelf? Pleeaaase?"

Naruto bounded over but carefully lifted said book from its place. He glanced at its cover and judging from the title, determined it to be a medical manual of some sort.

"What's this for?"

Naruto asked curiously as he handed it over.

"Mommy works at a place people go to when they get hurt! I'm studying to be just like her!"

Karin puffed proudly, laying the book beneath her and shifting herself over to start reading it. She also reached under her futon and pulled out a small notebook that held a pencil between its pages. Naruto spotted the front had 'Hard words to ask mom about' written on it, and watched as Karin would diligently take short intermissions from her reading to copy down words she presumably didn't know.

Meanwhile, Hinata sat in a upright meditating position on her own bedding, not making a sound. Yesterday, she was briefly able to see again, a fact that brought her much wonder and joy. Kara...no, mother...had given her a push for a new way to 'see', and the blind girl felt she was getting closer and closer.

The white youkai looked at both of his new sisters before deciding to read too.

 _'I too, want to be like Kaa-san'_

Even the revelation that his parents were ninjas didn't change Naruto's negative bias towards them, a fact that made Minato lower his head. However, this health worker stuff fell quite nicely with his whole 'get better at healing people' goal. Silently parsing through the bookshelf himself, he chose one titled _Chakra and Vitality_ and settled himself down. The room grew very quiet after.

However, Naruto's mindscape was a different story.

 **"...So Naruto, I kind of wanna bring something up. You remember the whole traveling thing? Do you still wanna do that? See the world? Still wanna journey to the land of demons?"**

Yami could understand if that goal dropped in priority. After all, meeting Kara seriously threw both of them for a loop. Minato, who didn't know about this (the youkai had the conversation in the darkness), carefully listened on. The yellow flash thought about what he knew of the land of demons, but not much came up, other than its location relatively far west from the land of fire. Naruto took a few seconds, answering while reading at the same time.

 _'...Yeah I do. I didn't even get out of the land of Fire, yet I got a family now. I'm curious what going to other lands would bring me, but...'_

Yami knew what was being implied, but his own reply came back almost immediately.

 **"Ok, how about both? Being here and traveling there?"**

 _'Dark clones?'_

Naruto mentally inquired. Minato perked up a bit. This, he knew all about due to his (sons?) conversation about that type of clone and its properties in the seal.

 **"Yeah, and with one traveling all that way, we can even test your connection with them. Well, it doesn't seem to be something quantifiable by distance but who knows, right? And if he happens to gain power on the way let's rig him with a summoning scroll to get him back here real quick, and meld him back in to empower yourself!"  
**

 _'...A summoning scroll...'_

In the mindscape, Naruto's eyes glinted as something occurred to him.

"That's right, dad, you had an instant teleporting thing, right?"

At this, Naruto saw his father's eyes grow protective. Protective...of him, the boy realized, feeling a bit warmer inside.

"That's...that technique requires a ton of concentration and can be very dangerous for the user. Please give me some time to think how I would teach it to you. I may have invented that version of it, but still..."

"Uh, alright then."

Naruto had no idea what his father could be talking about, but he trusted him, so the white youkai didn't press it. Yami gave quick looks at both of them before speaking again.

 **"...Ok, and uh, if we want to personally go where our clone, like something happens to it, we can rig a summoning system both ways. Actually, let's have more reserve dark clones in the summoning system too."**

 _'...sounds good. So straight to the land of demons then.'  
_

Naruto thought.

"A straight path..."

Minato murmured aloud. It felt like a bad idea, and it took a second for him to realize why.

"Hold on boys."

 _'D_ **ad?"** The two youkai asked simultaneously.

"It has been a few years, but last I heard the land of rain, the country just west of here, was embroiled in a civil war."

 **"Well...Root intelligence states the same thing recently. _We_ already knew about that..."**

Yami said disinterestedly. He and Naruto had already discussed this in the darkness after deciding the land of demons as their destination target.

 **"There's a certain...freedom we feel about bloodshed, whether it be ours or others. Now, we'll get to glimpse it again..."**

Yami grinned darkly, his visage gaining the same shade. Naruto didn't feel that there was anything wrong in admitting this, and so didn't deny it. Both youkai could clearly feel Minato's mood declining though. The yellow flash said no more, however, so both youkai took the matter as settled.

Black fog emanated off the small boy, congealing into a dark clone. Karin looked over her shoulder after this happened.

"Huh? Two Narutos?"

The little redhead thought that maybe this was what she had sensed two days ago.

"Is this another cool ninja thing?"

Naruto looked up from his reading.

"Ah, sort of. I just wanna go somewhere and this guy will do it for me. You don't need to mind us nee-chan."

The dark clone smiled and waved to Karin, echoing with:

"Yeah, don't mind us!"

"Oh, um, ok. Say, could you teach me how to do that later? It looks really neat!"

 **"I don't think she can do the darkness clone, but the shadow clone isn't off the table."**

With that in mind, Naruto answered:

"Sure."

The conversation did bring one thing to mind. Perhaps he should check in with the adult of the household before he left; if karin sensed the clone, Kara was sure too as well. Karin returned to her studying, Hinata staying with her...meditating?, and Naruto began trying to set up his summoning system. Due to the jutsu requiring a contracted animal, Naruto originally ran through it while only being able to form the summoning mark when he placed his hand on the ground. The small boy didn't actually summon anything, and Yami now woefully mentioned that none of the root people had summoning contracts, or had seen one unfurled, so he didn't know how they would make one.

 **"I mean, even summoning inanimate objects, not animals, from another place that isn't a storage seal requires a summoning contract. It's just, none of the root guys we ate had used this kind of thing. Sure, they have seen other root members do it...Haaah, I guess we were a bit unfortunate this time..."**

Minato, on the other hand, had examined the toad summoning scroll extensively, enough to be able to copy it's text perfectly from memory. The man was confident that he could devise a new extensive summoning scroll for this new purpose, and educate the method to his (sons?) as well. But before that...

"Naruto...what is this about root?"

The aforementioned boy looked puzzled for a bit, until Yami nudged him in the shoulder, transmitting thoughts pertaining everything Minato didn't know about them, like their talks in the darkness.

"Oh, when we eat people we gain their memories and power!"

Naruto eagerly explained.

 _'I see, so that is how it works...'_ Minato thought, having already hypothesized that specific explanation out of the many he had come up with to explain Naruto's unheard of rate for mastering jutsu. As it was brought up, Yami did grow curious as to what Minato knew about root, but decided against questioning him. He innately sensed it was sure to be a very controversial topic, given Minato's past short reign as Hokage. What the dark boy did do was start telling their father everything he knew about root, and see what he had to say. Minato looked at a loss by the end of it, which showed he clearly didn't know as much as they did. The yellow flash seemed to give off an impression that the root shouldn't be the way it is, but Minato still seemed iffy about that whole organization, like he wasn't sure to wholeheartedly disprove of it. Both youkai did sense strong moral indignation from their father, but Yami and Naruto kind of got the feeling that it was root's directive of protecting Konoha or something that made him so hesitant. Concerning Danzo however, Minato's feelings were much more clear. His face hardened at the mention of the old geezer, eyes cold.

Through the use of the Mind Body Transmission jutsu, transmitting key details and images, they were able to finish a working prototype by the hour, on a small (stolen from before they met Kara) empty handheld scroll. Naruto wrote his name in it using his black tears (he found he couldn't bite through his thumb), and the clone wrote the same name in the same way. A little experimenting revealed that when the dark clone reunited back into Naruto, its signature in the scroll disappeared. They didn't really mind, having already half-expected that to happen. They sent out another dark clone, while having others sign the scroll and then be sealed into a storage seal on Naruto's forearm, hidden under his sleeve.

The dark clone also had dark clones sealed in reserve with it. It was basically Naruto, and with his desire to be inconspicuous, went out transformed to be more humanlike and also had the invisibility jutsu on. He silently rushed to the clinic, passing through the white walls and avoiding every detectable presence except Kara's. He found her alone in some sort of patient care room, and spotted her grey shawl wrapped on a coat hanger. Naruto saw her dressed in a white coat, and sensed that no one else was around, at least within detectable earshot. Good.

"Naruto, is something the matter?"

Kara asked, a little off-put but sort of knowing what was going on, having been watching inside the house ever since the dark clone's chakra signature flared into existence.

"I want to travel mom, but be at your side too. So I'm gonna do both. See ya, and see ya when you get home today."

The invisible boy said quietly. Kara looked a little sadder, a sight that tugged at the little boy's heart. Why? He was home too wasn't he?

 _'He has been traveling before...but for how long...I don't know.'_

"Are you sure Naruto? The world can be a dangerous place."

"I wanna become more dangerous."

Kara now frowned in disapproval.

"Regardless, you are way too youn-"

She got no further, as the small boy had left passing through the wall. Already, the Uzumaki woman could sense him swiftly leaping across rooftops, running into the forest. Kara 'watched' him go, speechless, and resolved to speak about this to her son at home. Little did she know, Minato was listening to that little chat due to the clone's connection to the mindscape, his face hard to read.

 _'Hey dad, what do you think of her?'_

Naruto thought curiously out of the blue.

"...I feel grateful, indebted...Hmm...It's good that there are more of your mother's clan. I'd suppose she'd be ecstatic had she'd known..."

Minato said, having a faraway look in his eyes.

* * *

Naruto (the dark clone) had been running/ninja leaping nonstop for the past four hours, having crossed the border to the land of rain way back. The boy decided to not have the root ninja disguise under his invisibility technique. This wasn't the land of fire. Say his chameleon jutsu should fail for whatever reason. Naruto didn't want to be seen as a supposed leaf ninja in a foreign country, one that was said to be in a civil war.

On the civil war part, well...Naruto may have never seen a war of any kind, nor been on a battlefield, but he certainly wasn't getting the strife vibe so far. His father also commented that he wasn't feeling the right atmosphere either: no real instinctual wariness, no sharp tenseness from the air. Yami's mind raced. The latest report detailing Rain's civil war situation wasn't even a month old. Could they have resolved it in that time? Yami then realized that in the memories none of the root had actually been in Ame.

 **'There's something I'm missing here...'**

Or maybe it they didn't eat any that did go there? Or maybe the root simply had the wrong info.

 **'But what are the chances of that? They're so fucking meticulous!'**

In any case, Yami knew something wasn't right. After exhausting every explanation he could think of, and discussing this with Naruto and his father, Yami decided to drop it until some sort of confirmation occurred, if one would ever happen in the future. The dark youkai felt he had no real way to prove any of his speculations anyway.

In the meantime, the invisible white youkai wasn't running at his full speed; not even Naruto knew how fast that was, he never tried. He only ran at a speed that was fast, but not fast enough to generate a lot of noise from air pressure. He didn't want to draw attention of course, and had his invisible jutsu on the whole time. Even so, Minato compared it to at least four times the speed he would go for a urgent mission of vast importance.

"You don't feel tired Naruto? At all?"

 _'Nope!'_

Even though Minato aware that Naruto had done this for longer periods of time, the question just came out unconsciously.

"Such stamina...just like your mother."

 **'I think its more the insane amount of power from the Kyuubi...'**

Yami thought to himself. The blond man reminisced back down memory lane, while Naruto suddenly thought of something.

 _'So dad, what was mom supposed to say to me? Things only a mother could say? It sounded to me that you know...'_

Minato snapped back to awareness, and realized Naruto was referring to something he had said shortly before his death. Truthfully...

"I...I don't know."

Sealing Kushina's chakra really had come as a snap decision, after Minato had heard that her only regret was that she wouldn't see Naruto grown up. An awkward silence ensued, and Naruto just looked at the surroundings as he continued his sprint. It was rather sunny, much like the previous day, and Naruto continued running he passed many small lakes to really large puddles. There were a couple of big lakes too. In each case, the water looked remarkably clear, and the sun caused a ton of glittering sparkles to appear on the surface. All in all, they weren't bad sights to behold. Where Naruto was content to bask in his surroundings, the bright sunlight brought Yami one thing to mind: Naruto's light.

 **'These past few days...I feel him growing in strength...Is it the loving atmosphere?'** **  
**Yami thoughtfully contemplated to himself. The dark youkai originally felt rather apprehensive about the idea, theorizing to himself that maybe that the light side and him were Yin and Yang; opposing opposites where if one grew stronger, the other got weaker. This idea was dispelled once he realized that he wasn't getting weaker during this time either, and now like Naruto he eagerly (but a little bit more cautiously) waited for the light side to 'wake up'.

The quiet moment of reticence was broken when Minato suddenly voiced:

"Listen son, would you like to learn a super cool jutsu from me? It's one where there isn't much risk to the user, unlike my Hiraishin."

 _'Would I!'_

Naruto began ecstatically at first.

 _'...Hey wait. What about the original me?'_

Minato smiled.

"I saw when you tested out the dark clone's abilities. You can transfer much like a shadow clone, correct? The original you is studying quite seriously right now, and I never have thought it prudent to practice ninjutsu in one's home."

 _'Oh, right.'  
_

Still, Naruto still didn't like the idea of doing such a thing out in the open. This wasn't the forest, he was on a wide open plain that held some large bodies of water on it. However, in the distance, on a plain where there was more vegetation on the ground, he spotted an old house. With his incredible far-distance vision, it was easy to tell that it was abandoned for quite some time. There were vines growing all over it, and its yellow paint had clearly chipped or eroded away. Perfect.

 _'Ok, let's go train in there.'_

Minato, knowing his son's nature, nodded wordlessly. Inside the house wasn't very different than the exterior, filled with vines and rundown. It was divided in two by a ripped curtain, with visible sinks on the left hand side. By the section by the doorway where Naruto stood, he spotted a small shelf on a wall to his right, with three wooden plaques held on it, which were surrounded by vines that had grown light blue flowers. Two were red, while the one on the right had a frog's face on it. Three worn names, barely readable, were printed below the wooden cards. Father and sons recognized none of them. There was a giant hole in the roof the metal curved downward as if it was due to an outside explosion of some sort. The opening let in a bright ball of sunlight on the wall with the three plaques, which partially illuminated the whole house. The wall on Naruto's left had a similar shelf in a similar state, but it had only one plaque. It was clear that the vines grew on it a bit, which altered how the wooden card was facing, although the visible side was still red.

Both Naruto and Yami heard Minato's breath of surprise as the former looked upon the name below it. Jiraiya.

 _'That's right...Sensei trained his first students in Ame. Did he live with them here?'_

Minato pondered to himself. Meanwhile, it was evident that their father recognized this name, and with a start Naruto realized he did too. His mother had told him to watch out for this person in her dying breaths. So...an enemy? But her tone was more teasing than anything so Naruto wasn't sure.

 _'Dad, who is Jiraiya?'_

"An excellent shinobi, a man of great skill, and my sensei."

The yellow flash answered.

"Ok...so why did mom tell me to watch out should he appear?"

"Ah...That's..."

Minato remembered that occurrence himself, and he grew a bit sheepish. Looking into his son's face of curious innocence, all he could do was rub the back of his neck and laugh awkwardly. Conversely, Yami grew more and more displeased at the mention of Jiraiya, his face gaining a tint of malice.

 **"Dad, let's focus on what you're trying to teach us right now."**

Naruto, understanding that Yami was trying to shift the conversation, followed along, knowing there must be a reason his darkness was doing so. At the dark youkai's words, Minato seemed to refocus.

"Yes, the jutsu is called Rasengan, and looks a little something like this. I saw how you have done many jutsu without handsigns, so this one is the same thing. Also, once it is formed, it doesn't need a continuous outflow of chakra, which means that there is no definite limit for this jutsu."

In the mindscape, a watermelon-sized sphere of swirling blue chakra materialized in Minato's outstretched hand. Both youkai instantly recognized it, remembering it from the fight against the masked man.

 **'We already have the bijuudama, although we never tested it out yet due to its eyecatchiness. This Rasengan does seem smaller, less noticeable.'**

Yami thought back to how the his father's jutsu pulverized the ground as Minato continued speaking.

"In essence, it boils down to three stages..."

Naruto listened carefully as his father explained how he first had to spin his chakra in multiple directions, while a small incohesive swirl of chakra formed in the man's right hand. Then the swirl greatly increased in size and ferocity; his father stated the second step was to increase the power, the output of the chakra used for the jutsu. The final step was to condense the chakra into a sphere, and Naruto watched as chaotic swirl in his father's hand coalesced into a blue spiraling sphere.

"-and that's it. It may look simple now, but this Jutsu took me three years to invent. Should you need to see this again, I'll demonstrate as many times as you like."

The yellow flash let the blue orb dissipate, and he took a step closer to Naruto, his gaze on the top of the child's head. The blond man then ran the fingers of his right hand through his son's spiky white locks.

"Uh, what's _up_ dad?"

Naruto lightheartedly joked, not really sure what his father was doing.

"Oh. The hairs' orientation tells of the direction chakra circulates through the body. From what I can see, your hairline is a right swirl, so you have right rotation for your chakra. Therefore, for step one, perhaps it's easiest if you try making your chakra spin to the right first."

Minato replied as he let go, taking a step back. At this stage, he was content to watch, to see what his son would do. Yami decided to observe too. The dark youkai stood next to Minato, holding the chakra transfer jutsu at the ready the whole time. He did tell Naruto that he would be backup, although the present circumstance wasn't really what he had envisioned when he had said it.

Outside the mindscape, in the old abandoned house, Naruto stared at the open palm of his right hand.

 _'Spinning, huh?...Hey wait...'_

The white youkai knew a plethora of ninjutsu by now, and a couple of them had to do with spinning things around.

 _'I know, let's use this...Suiton: Hahonryū.'_

The tearing torrent technique is a jutsu that creates water in spirals from the user's hand, which in the end is fired at a high speed towards the enemy. The key word here was, of course, spiral. The water released in the jutsu was _spinning_ , and Naruto distinctively remembered that the first time he did it back in the forests in the land of fire, it spun to the _right_. So really, he supposed, he already knew how to do it.

All he had to do was not convert the chakra into the water element, and to not fire it off. Within half a second, a vortex shaped mass of chakra appeared on Naruto's palm, all of it spinning to the right.

"You're coming along very well. It's an interesting idea, I have never thought about something like this before..."

Minato earnestly praised. The blond man recognized the jutsu, but never made the connection between it and the first step.

 _'There are other jutsu I could of done to do this, but now...'_

Thought his fixated son. Naruto began trying to spin his chakra in other directions, even just to the left. After ten minutes, there still wasn't much progress. Naruto tried the rest of the spinning jutsu he knew, just to see if he could garner any difference. There wasn't, they all still spun to the right like he remembered.

Now, Naruto stood holding out both hands, staring aimlessly as each vortex spun to the right. After a few seconds though, his eyes slowly widened as he came to a realization.

 _'...If I flip one hand over, then technically...'_

The small boy acted on his thought, turning over his left hand. Yep, the vortex was now swirling to the left. Holding his left palm facing down over his right facing up, he could see the two tornadoes mixing, clashing, churning...generally becoming more chaotic as they collided. In a burst of ingenuity, pulled his hands apart, formed little mini vortexes on each finger, curled said fingers and moved them back to their previous closeness. Yep, definitely more chaotic. Stepping up power was easy. The small boy just upped how much chakra he was using. Sure, the chakra intensity seemed to be forcing his hands apart, but it wasn't anything too bad. Some of the chakra started being literally spun out at high speeds, leaving deep long cuts on the wooden floor and gouging the walls. Naruto stopped at that point, guessing that step one and two were complete.

For step three, Naruto began working on how to make a sphere first. Not a chakra sphere; just a regular ol' sphere. There was some muddy areas nearby outside the abandoned house, so Naruto just scooped some of the muck and came back in. He spent the next few minutes playing around with the soft earth, making mudballs and stuff. After he felt he made the best and most perfect mud sphere he possibly could, he held up the ball with both hands and hardened it using the reverse of the earth element's Hiding Like a Mole jutsu. That, the small boy decided, would be his base template. Naruto proceeded to transmit his chakra through into it in the form of those spiral vortexes. He had the curled chakra start out small though, and carefully had them grow bigger little by little, hollowing out the mudball from the inside. He likened it to filling in a circle in 3d, with the chakra from his hands being pencil/marker/whatever points. Slowly but surely, the surface of the mudball began to peel off completely, and what lied in its place was...a blue sphere of swirling chakra.

 **"...That was _really_ cool."**

Yami commented, impressed.

"Wow, I'll repeat myself again. I never thought there could be such a way to do it."

Minato said proudly, coming over and ruffling Naruto's spiky white hair in the mindscape.

"You've learned the Rasengan so quickly..."

At this point, Naruto grew a little bashful from hearing his father's acclaim. No one had ever done that for him before.

"I'd think that it's much harder to make a super cool jutsu from scratch rather than following directions...but anyway, thanks Dad."

His father shook his head.

"No Naruto, it's just that the rate of your progress was unbelievably fast. You're talented, son!"

 _'This can't really be called true mastery...using two hands for it is a bit...the Rasengan was supposed to be an instantaneous, unrestrained strike weapon, after all. But right now, it's fine. Today, my son learned a jutsu from me.'  
_

At the end of this thought, the yellow flash sported a satisfied smile. Naruto flashed a brilliant one of his own.

* * *

It was raining, no, pouring.

"...So this is the hidden rain village huh?"

Naruto, now wearing a stolen kidsized raincoat, looked out at the heavily industrialized village in the distance, heck, it looked more like a metal city. It was situated in the middle of a huge lake, one that was easily three times larger than the other ones he had seen. This marked the second time he had ever seen/been to a hidden village, and the small boy felt childishly curious about this second one. Somewhere to Naruto's far left he spotted a bridge that led to the village, one that had electric lines leading outside the village to the land and into it. He pinpointed numerous stations along it, with five...

 _'Yep, they have hidden rain headbands.'_

...Ame ninja at each one.

 **"It looks like the immigration inspections are just as strict as they say."**

Yami observed.

"Yes, it has been that way since my time. I know it appears that the village isn't undergoing any civil wars but, are you sure?"

Minato was still a bit worried.

"Where's your sense of adventure dad? Let's gooooo!"

Naruto didn't really like the idea of getting to somewhere without stopping to visit places first. And since there didn't appear to be a civil war going on, why not?

Although he was invisible, Naruto most certainly wasn't going to waltz in on the bridge. The child squatted down before rocketing himself up, producing a mini shockwave that wasn't really visible or heard due to the rain, leaving an deep indent in the wet ground. The small boy soared into the air, and as he got higher and higher to the clouds, he noticed something odd. It wasn't something a normal person could spot from the ground. Yes, there were tons of clouds up above, emcompassing the entire lake plus some of the surrounding area, but judging from the wind Naruto felt on his skin, the rainstorm wasn't moving correctly. It should be heading east or something, but it wasn't. Naruto could see the clouds almost swirling around at a center point seemingly...over the village?

 _'Hidden villages have defense mechanisms in place right? Do you think this rainstorm is one?'_

 **"Probably. Whatever it is, it's certainly large in scale. Have you ever seen anything like this dad?"**

"No."

Minato agreed with his son's assertion. Inwardly however, his mind was racing. He had a nagging suspicion that it was something of a sensing technique. True, his son had a jutsu active that erased his chakra signature, but the man had no idea of the sensing strength of these stormclouds. After all, Kara had proved that possessing a superior sensing method would bypass the chameleon technique.

By now, Naruto had reached the apex of his jump. From his position in air, he could see the entirety of the village. He could see its people walking the streets, all of them dressed in rain cloaks. He angled his body a bit as he descended, aiming his landing in a lone alleyway. He cast a bit of wind manipulation to greatly slow his fall. As he neared the ground, the small boy skidded down the side of a metal tower and soundlessly dropped into the narrow passageway.

 _'Man, this pouring rain is pretty convenient.'_

The white youkai had taken advantage of it to smother everything he had done so far.

 _'Well, time to see the city!'_

The boy cheerfully thought, intent on having fun.

 **"Be careful Naruto, this isn't one of those remote villages we've been to. There's a ton of ninjas here; try not to step out of line, know what I mean?"**

Naruto registered this, deactivated his chameleon jutsu, and walked out into the streets.

* * *

The white youkai had spent a few hours touring the hidden rain, his hood pulled back on his raincoat. It stopped raining twenty minutes ago, the rainclouds uncovering a clear afternoon sky, bathing the city in an orange glow.

For Naruto, not stepping out of line basically equated to not stealing, and the small boy didn't really have to either for what he did most in the city: Visit places for eating stuff. The small boy had a lot of previously stolen cash, which didn't mean much to him. He had no problem spending all of it on the various food stalls and restaurants he went to.

"Yum. This tastes great!"

The little boy smiled happily, clutching a stick of grilled fish as he walked. It seemed to be a specialty meal around here, judging by how many food stalls offered it. People around him did stop and stare at him for his outburst, but Naruto didn't really feel weird or self-conscious about it. Unlike back in Konoha, their gazes didn't linger more than a second, and Naruto didn't feel any negative emotions at all from them. Indeed, some of them faintly smiled or looked amused.

Behind the boy, under the shadow of an overhang on top of a nearby metal tower (the village was filled with these), a dim human silhouette could be seen. A streak of sunlight pierced through the shade, revealing a pair of neutral amber eyes, and a single raised eyebrow. Suddenly, it was as if the outline burst into pieces, which remained floating as a mass of much smaller undefined shapes in the obscurity of the shadow. Naruto was blissfully unaware of this; if he didn't feel negative stuff directed at him from others, nothing was wrong.

* * *

The sun was setting now, and Naruto sat in an alleyway again, snacking on a steaming meatbun. Man, that old lady's shop was great! However, the child knew that he had spent the last of his money there.

 _'I think it's time to go...'_

Yami nodded in agreement, already consulting the map further west. Minato secretly gave a relieved sigh. Nothing crazy had happened, hiding in plain sight worked.

"Child, what are doing alone out here?"

Said a deep, projecting voice behind the chewing boy.

 _'Huh? But I didn't sense any emotion nearby?'_

Thought a confused Naruto as he swallowed the last of his meatbun. But because he didn't feel anything bad towards him, he simply turned around. A tall slender man stood before him, a black cloak decorated in red clouds covering almost his entire body. The man had long orange hair that parted at his shoulders, and his emotionless face was heavily pierced with studs on both cheeks and his chin, one diagonal bar through his nose. The guy also wore a hidden rain headband, but there was a slash through the village insignia, which meant missingnin status. The most interesting thing though, was his eyes. Yami's eyes widened as he stared at the cloaked man's rippled grey orbs.

 **"...what?"**

The dark youkai breathed. Less than a second later, Minato recognized those eyes as well. They were the stuff of legend...

"...the mythical Rinnegan..."

Minato eyes sharpened at the cloaked man as he said this. Meanwhile Naruto merely replied.

"I was eating my pork bun, mister."

Deep down, the white youkai was on guard. Was this guy like the root? No feelings, so he couldn't sense him? The cloaked man didn't move to attack or anything though, the guy just started slowly stepping closer.

"Eh, what are you doing?"

Naruto stated unsurely, taking a step back every time the other man took one forward. Their distance didn't decrease, but a few seconds later the man just stopped.

"Take my hand, child."

He said plainly. A few seconds pass by with Naruto staring at the offered pale hand, and to the man's pierced expressionless face.

 **"...I think I know what's going on..."**

Yami said after a moment of thought.

 **"I have a plan, one that also accounts for if he will hurt us, and if that isn't his intention. Do what he says man. I got it covered. One thing though; when you do take his hand, give me full control."**

Naruto stepped forward without hesitation. Five steps away...three steps away...one-

The white youkai placed his smaller hand into the man's larger one. The instant he did so, Naruto felt a dark, oily pressure overtake him again. Yami had a hunch that the orangehaired man was doing some sort of mental thing and, while shielding Naruto's mind presence from harm (and Minato's), forcefully dragged all of their worst moments into the forefront (all the burning...all the torture...).

 **'Either way, if he does have harmful intentions (not that I can sense any), this could knock him down for us to either eat him or escape.'**

Yami thought. However, to the dark youkai's surprise, the man didn't let go of his hand at all, and only gripped it tighter. When the man's emotionless face appeared to soften, Yami dropped the whole horrible experience showing. He retracted, and Naruto was in full control again.

 _'...Uh, Yami, what was that supposed to do?'_

 **"Sorry, I think I messed up."  
**

Yami confessed in a perplexed tone. At the same time, Minato appeared greatly saddened and conflicted. He even had what both youkai supposed was a face of anger, something neither had seen before. They sensed it wasn't directed at them, so they both kept quiet about it.

In the physical world, Naruto tried to lightly tug his hand away, but the other man's grip stayed firm.

"...uh, mister? Could you let go of my hand?"

The small boy didn't really know what would happen if he wrenched it away, so he didn't.

"No."

Came a curt response. Naruto looked up at the cloaked man's face, and also spotted a shape in the sky. It was...flying?...at a very high velocity. Within a few seconds that shape dropped down before them, somehow landing without denting the metal floor, revealing to be a similarly cloaked and pierced man. He wore the same missingnin forehead protector, had the same pale skin tone and hair color, but his was spiky and of medium length. Most notably, he possessed the same rippled eyes.

 _'...bro_ **thers?'**

Was the first thing that both youkai thought. This new person spoke with literally (Naruto could swear on it) the same voice as the man currently holding his hand.

"Child, where are your parents?"

In the mindscape, Naruto looked over to a partially unresponsive Minato.

 _'Dad's here, but technically...'_

"...They're dead."

The spiky haired man didn't look surprised at this, and reached over to place a hand on Naruto's shoulder. Immediately, the white youkai felt a sense of weightlessness, and before he knew it he was floating two feet off the ground. The ripple-eyed man kept a solid hold of Naruto's shoulder, and seemed to be the one causing them to get higher and higher into the air.

"Don't be afraid."

The other longhaired man had let go of the small boy's hand by then, and merely watched impassively as Naruto and the other man flew away. The two had flown straight up high above the city, and then descended as if they were on a slide. Naruto found himself at the entrance of a small building that seemed to be away from the central hub of the village, judging by the fact there was no one present on the streets. The man walked forward, still holding on to Naruto, who quickly matched his pace. When they passed the doors, Naruto saw some sort of front desk there, with a middle-aged woman who immediately sat up straight upon seeing them.

"Lord Pain!"

She called reverently. The 'Lord Pain' person let go of Naruto and waved a robed sleeve towards him.

"He'll be joining you from now on."

He tersely said before leaving. The woman watched him go, and the instant his figure disappeared via the swinging doors, she blinked and looked kindly at Naruto.

"Hello there. Since you'll be joining us, could you care to answer some questions?"

Naruto was nonplussed at this point. _'Everything is happening so fast! I was just planning on leaving too...'_ He answered them truthfully. They were kind of generic anyway, nothing too probing. She took notes and brought him to a separate room afterwards, one that had a camera set up. A quick photo later, the lady led a bewildered Naruto down a hallway and into a new large room. There were beds everywhere, with children on most of them.

 _'...We're in an orphanage.'_

Naruto finally realized. He stared around at the faces before him. Curiosity. Interest. A few apathetic. But no hostility; not on a single one of them.

"Hey everyone, we have a new friend joining us."

The stocky woman patted Naruto lightly on the back.  
"Why don't you introduce yourself to us? Come now, don't be shy."

A weird feeling was growing in Naruto's chest, one that was also welling within Yami, which dazed the dark youkai. The small boy looked at the group of kids and tried to speak. He opened his mouth a few times, but the words just wouldn't come out. Finally, he managed out.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I..."

Henge'd blue eyes glinted.

"...want to be a doctor."

* * *

 _Later..._

In the tallest tower of Amegakure, there was a dimly lit room. Through the few strands of light, a thin bony hand could be seen clutching a piece of paper. It was a profile that held the photo of a small white-haired boy on its top-right corner.

"Uzumaki Naruto, eh?"

A hoarse voice chuckled, its owner's rippled grey eyes glowing in the darkness.

"Someone interesting has come our way..."

* * *

 **I decided to have Nagato and Konan take over Ame and kill Hanzo by now. Yes, I know that in the fillers they supposedly killed him sometime after the first chunin exams, yet in one of the ninja storm games (don't remember which one), there was a whole akatsuki backstory section where it's implied that they overthrew hanzo years before canon _and then started recruiting akatsuki members_. I'm choosing the latter eventuality for this case, but I'm deciding not to _strictly_ follow either of them for this story.  
**

 **Review/Fav/Follow pls :/ (Or all three)**


	8. Spherical Progress

Being in a _rain_ orphanage certainly was different than prior history. After he had introduced himself, Naruto (the dark clone) was able to get familiar with his fellow orphans, an experience he never had in Konoha's orphanage, an experience he never sought to have either. But here, it was nice. Naruto may have liked it, but he innately felt that it was different than how he currently lived with mom, Karin and Hinata in the small border village. The dark clone therefore kept his youkai traits hidden away. There was one thing he noticed though; a lot of the kids tended to have the same goal/dream.

"I will become a ninja and serve Pain-sama one day."

A solemn looking little girl named Ajisai said after she introduced herself. There was a few exceptions like this older boy named Daiki, who told him:

"I wanna run the tea shop two blocks over when I grow up. I like the nee-chan who works there. I think she's very pretty."

Yeah, a few kids wanted to pursue other professions, but most wanted to become ninjas. All who did want to be shinobi reverently spoke of this "Pain", which Naruto guessed was the name of the guy who flew him here. All this talk about him did make Naruto curious as to why Pain was admired so much. Obviously, the boy already knew that pierced man couldn't be _normal;_ he could _fly._

"Eh? You don't know who Pain-sama is? Did you live under a rock or something?"

One of the older boys, ten years old appearance-wise, responded confusedly. He didn't wait for Naruto to answer.

"Maybe you're from the frontier, so you don't know yet. Pain-sama killed all the bad guys and stopped them from hurting our country!"

Naruto knew he wasn't from the land of rain, but considering his feelings for Konoha, maybe it's alright to be considered with the land of ra-

 **"Hold up Naruto, we shouldn't throw our allegiance around so easily..."**

Yami interrupted, his spiraled eyes shifting uneasily. Naruto mentally shrugged, not really thinking it was a big deal. The boy did ask around a bit more, but everyone he questioned just gave a similar response, singing Pain's praises. In fact, Naruto sort of got the impression that they were idolizing...a god.

The Pain guy wasn't the only highly respected figure. A good fraction of the kids also talked of following an angel or something. Naruto was reminded of how most of the shops and restaurants he'd been to in Amegakure, where there would be an origami angel hanging outside the door. Did that have some relation?

His own inquiries aside, the small white haired boy stayed in that big shared bedroom for the rest of the afternoon. When it came to dinner, Naruto didn't even have to fight or steal for a portion like he used to in Konoha's orphanage, a fact that still stunned him.

Now it was night. Naruto lied peacefully amidst the soft snoring of the children around him.

 _'...Yami. Dad. You there?'_

 **"...I'm here. Dad is...still caught up on...something."**

Yami voice sounded out after a few seconds. All he could theorize was that it had something to do with them and Konoha.

"No, I'm here son. What is it?"

Minato spoke out, his voice noticeably more weary.

 _'What was with your reaction when we saw Pain's brother? What's the Rinnegan?'_

Now that all was quiet, the small boy remembered that time. The small boy knew who Pain was, and assumed the other long-haired man was his brother.

"A mythical pair of eyes only really heard about from fables. Such tales said it to be a god's possession, where they would use it to bring salvation to a world of disorder...or rend all of creation to nothingness..."

Minato said, drawing from what he remembered from old folktales he had read as a child.

"The founder of the whole ninja world, called the sage of six paths...a person whose knowledge and skills gave birth to ninjutsu itself, was said to have those eyes..."

 _'So the eyes, huh?'_

Thought Naruto. They looked familiar, and it took him two seconds to remember where he had seen them before.

 _'Say dad, you saw that huge outflow of visions I got when I ate the Kyuubi right? Wasn't there one with a horned man who had the Rinnegan? Do you think that was him?'_

It didn't take long for the yellow flash to recall, and both father and son waited on Yami for an explanation. Said youkai shrugged.

 **"Yeah that** **was him, I think. That was also the fox's first memory too. On another note, it looks like that sage guy created the Kyuubi and the other tailed beasts. Called him old man Hagoromo. Somewhere down the line though, he suddenly exited their lives."**

"That's...interesting..."

Minato hesitantly replied first. To be honest, he didn't really know what to make of that information.

 _'...Speaking of the Kyuubi dad, I just gotta ask...why did you seal the its dark half inside me?'_

Naruto abruptly questioned. He never thought about it until now. His father looked thoughtful for a moment.

"...It was a quick decision. That night, I truly had not really expected that the kyuubi would break free. A mistake in hindsight, but we were just so prepared, and little to none were aware of your mother's pregnancy-"

Yami narrowed his eyes as he interrupted, suspicious as always.

 **"-Do you think one or more of the people who knew were compromised?"**

Minato initially looked completely dismissive, but gradually gave way to dubiousness.

"I don't believe so..."

 **'...More like you don't _want_ believe so. Probably trusted friends or confidants, huh?'**

Yami privately thought, reading Minato's face. The dark youkai developed a pretty good sense in facial expressions, having seen so many in the vast collection of memories.

"...Maybe it's just that masked man was just waiting...then again...he had to have some idea, some lead to go off on in the first place..."

Naruto exchanged a glance with Yami, who was apologetic. Their dad looked like he would go off on that weirdly quiet negative mood again.

 _'Dad, I get the idea. Can you finish what you were saying before 'bout my sealing?'_

 **"Sorry for cutting you off."**

Minato appeared eager to backtrack.

"Yang power is tied to vitality, true...but...I don't know...your mother had the most potent chakra I ever seen, and I thought that would be passed down to you. Yin, on other hand, is associated with mental power...Among the precautions I had taken that night, a powerful genjutsu user was not one of them. The masked man was able to control the Kyuubi using genjutsu, after all. That area is neither your mother nor my forte, so...I wanted you to have it for when you took the Kyuubi's power for your own..."

 _'Little did I know...'_

The Yin Kyuubi's deep and sinister laughter echoed through the blond man's mind. Seeing Minato's face fall slightly, Naruto quickly said.

 _'It's alright dad. Without the kyuubi's regenerative properties, I would be dead by now-'_

 **'But if it weren't for the Kyuubi, I wouldn't be experimented on in the first place...'**

The dark youkai secretly sighed.

 **'I guess that's a price of power...the attention of others who covet it...people like Danzo, who I vowed vengeance on...'**

Yami ended the thought darkly.

 _'-'sides, I can do genjutsu like a breeze now.'_

"You can?"

Seeing his father perk up, Naruto grinned cheerily. Meanwhile, Yami felt alarm bells ring loudly in his head.

 _'Yeah, everyone I eat alive shows up in here. Yami said they were supposed to be their souls or something. I just practice on them all the time.'_

The dark youkai almost wanted to stop Naruto from talking, but decided against it. Minato caught Yami's double-take transition to a blank face. The man was aware of who Naruto had...consumed. He remembered that in the split second last time his sons exited the darkness outside the seal, he could hear the faintest sound of screaming before the blackness closed up. It didn't take the yellow flash long to correctly determine what sort of things were happening out there. However, he didn't really feel inclined to save them from his sons. He remembered what they had done to Naruto. Maybe not all of them directly contributed, but the ones that didn't were there to ensure that Naruto didn't escape, that his painful experimentation would continue indefinitely. That period of Naruto's history was where Minato felt the most useless in his life, stuck in the seal. That he failed as a father.

"That's nice, son."

Minato replied, his blue eyes a little glossy. Yami noted this, somewhat able to guess what he was thinking. The dark youkai hid a grin; the Kyuubi aside, it seemed that the Fourth Hokage was turning a blind eye to their...activities...despite the fact that the Root ninjas held allegiance to Konoha.

* * *

When Naruto got focused on something, he becomes super into it. Sitting on the floor of Kara's house in the middle of the town called Onanji, the original Naruto wasn't paying attention to anything else other than his reading. True, there was the split vision with his dark clones, but Naruto found he could place those images beneath his awareness, distance himself from the mindscape. One way to shake him out of it was with physical contact. Like when Kara gently patted his shoulder.

"...Naruto...Naruto...?"

The little boy instantly looked up with a smile.

"Hey mom!"

A large stack of books lied at his right, an empty bento at his left. Naruto didn't even remember when he had eaten that. Half a second later he did, remembering when Kara had come back to make them lunch. Through the open door he could spot Karin staring back at him and Hinata blindfolded, both seated at the low table, a birthday cake with six unlit candles sitting upon it.

"You should respond when someone calls you."

Kara lightly admonished.

"Now come and join us after putting these away."

By the time she turned around, Naruto had already placed all of them back in the exact order he remembered on the bookshelf. He picked up the empty lunch case and followed behind Kara, closing the door to the bedroom. Karin had a stunned look as she saw Naruto practically move in a blur to do this. Her mother meanwhile went into the kitchen and came back with a red lighter. Lighting the candles, she said.

"Make sure to make a wish before you blow these out, Karin."

The little redhead dropped her surprised look and closed her eyes for a few seconds.

"All done!"

She yelled out before taking a huge breath and blowing out all the candles. Besides eating the cake, there were presents too. Kara gave Karin a small handbag covered in red wrapping. Naruto pulled out the bundle scrolls bound by a stolen red ribbon (Naruto had stolen those too) and handed them to her.

"These got a ton of ninjutsu in them."

"Thanks lil bro!"

Hinata got her something too. It turns out she went out with Kara during lunch to the field for help in making a flower crown. Sometime after the celebrations were finished, while Karin was reading her new scrolls, Kara took Naruto to the side for a little talk.

"Naruto...why did you leave?"

The redhead woman appeared confused, worried, and looked like she wanted to say much more.

"Mom, I didn't like being cooped up. That's how I always felt in the place I used to live in. Besides, leaving there and traveling brought me to you."

Kara could detect sincerity, but also felt Naruto was almost on edge. She stopped there, but Naruto wasn't done.

"Yes, this world is dangerous, cruel, and terrible. I know that very well. But you...you showed me how it could also be wonderful. I love you mom."

Although it was only about two days since he first met her, Naruto believed it, believed that he loved Kara.

 _Thump...Thump..._

The little boy's black heart beat weakly. He wrapped his small arms around her, his head pressed against her stomach. Kara returned it, her arms reaching behind the boy's back.

 _'Naruto is from my clan. Hinata is most likely the same type of child...her eyes...a dojutsu? Perhaps they both were found by a ninja village...'  
_

The redhead woman held no illusions over the awful things that could happen to remnants of destroyed clans.

* * *

Naruto pensively lied awake that night, mindlessly staring at Kara's sleeping form when a sudden rough voice interrupted him, the mindscape coming back to the forefront of his mind, both Yami and Minato standing together by the giant bars.

 **"Hey Naruto. I sorta got the impression that you somehow weren't really aware of how things were going on this end."**

 _'So, what happened? Where am I now?'  
_

 **"Why ask? We left an extra dark clone so** **can you summon the first one? I promise you won't be disappointed."**

He surveyed the rest of his family. Still asleep. Good. Shifting himself over, Naruto unfurled his summoning scroll. A poof of smoke later, another Naruto grinned as he appeared. No words were said, the clone promptly burst into a cloud of darkness and reentered the original Naruto. The little youkai boy stayed silent as he wholly assimilated the memories.

 _'...Another ninja village.'_

 **"It's pretty lit though right?"  
**

 _'...Yeah. Cool. Anyway, training time.'  
_

Naruto formed another dark clone, which ran through walls of the house, heading straight into the cover deep in the trees. They ran a distance Yami judged to be about several tens of miles away west, a place where he sensed that he was alone. Yami had consulted the map and marked the forest to have no human settlements of any kind within a forty mile radius. The dark clone cupped his hands, a blue ball of swirling chakra appearing between them.

 _'I've learned it, but I didn't truly master it right dad?'_

The original Naruto thought, staring at the Rasengan through the shared vision. At the same time in the mindscape, Yami's dark clone dragged another newly formed dark clone Naruto off into the darkness for genjutsu training, while the original dark youkai stayed in order to replenish their father's chakra should the need arise. Minato ambiguously watched them go before answering.

"That's true; you've seen how I used the Rasengan against the masked man, right?"

At Naruto's nod of confirmation, the yellow flash continued.

"But even that isn't what I consider true mastery. There was one way of improving it that I considered, something I unfortunately failed to complete before my death."

 _'What...what is it? I'll do it.'  
_

Naruto curiously thought, steadily growing more determined. If it's something his father couldn't accomplish, he felt a strong desire to succeed. Minato sighed warmly as he regarded his son.

"Mixing a chakra element into the Rasengan. I was planning to add the wind element, because that's my chakra affinity. When I was trying to develop this, it felt like...trying to look left and right at the same time. Maintaining the high level of shape transformation while infusing it with the high wind transformation...it's a bit of a high hurdle to jump."

 _'...Looking left and right?'_

Naruto turned side to side experimentally.

 _'Left and right, huh?'_

"That's it!"

Minato could see how quickly the revelation dawned in his son's spiraled eyes.

"Hmm? You have some insight?"

Naruto first tried pushing wind chakra out of his palms as a test and the sphere immediately began destabilizing. Yep, he can't do that for now. He needs both hands to maintain the Rasengan. But who said he could only have two hands?

Since the dark clone couldn't create more dark clones, he made a shadow clone appear to his left. The dark clone created another Rasengan, with the shadow clone extending his right hand over it, adding in wind chakra. Immediately, the sphere began accelerating in its rotation. Faster and faster it spun, and the opening low hum sound reached a deafening high-pitched screeching noise. Four spinning, small sharp white blades began extending out of the spiraling sphere, eventually extending to such a length that both Narutos had to readjust their positions as to not be cut by them. The finished end result looked like a...Rasengan in a shuriken. Yes, the little boy decided he would simply call it Rasenshuriken.

"Amazing...with anything, steps should be taken one at a time...but it appears there were intermediary steps I didn't consider...good job Naruto."

 _'...To think all it required was an extra helping hand...'_

Minato looked on with a proud smile.

 _'Heh, even I wouldn't be able to do it this way. The kagebunshin, the amount of chakra I sense from it, it's too much for me to use efficiently in a battle. Too costly in chakra, but for someone like you...You're really one of a kind, son.'_

There wasn't much of a celebration however, as a few seconds later the shadow clone abruptly burst into a cloud of smoke. Naruto began feeling an extreme prickling sensation, like countless tiny needles were stabbing him in both arms; the feeling quickly expanded to cover the front of his whole body. He instinctively shut his eyes, while Yami shouted.

 **"Stop the jutsu Naruto!"**

After cutting off the chakra flow into the jutsu, Naruto felt the prickling feeling intensify a bit before fading away completely. Cracking open his eyes, he saw the front of his black pajamas nearly shredded to ribbons, while the back was completely fine. The grass around him was completely eroded away, while the sides of trees facing him had their bark stripped off. He hurriedly changed into another (stolen) one.

 **"It's definitely should be a kinjutsu. From what I could see, this Rasenshuriken attacks in all directions on an invisibly small scale. Like, if we didn't have the Kyuubi's insane durability and were human, our arms would've been shaved down to the bone in that short interval...Wait, no, even the bones would be reduced to nothing..."**

Minato wasn't that surprised at what happened. After all, the greater the jutsu, the greater the risk.

"If it's at such a scale, it could cause irreparable damage to the many microscopic pathways of the chakra network. Definitely an S-rank at the very least."

The blond man surmised.

"Also Naruto, you are right-handed, are you not?"

 _'Yeah?'_

"As a word fatherly advice, train yourself to use your left hand with as much skill as your right. Trust me, it certainly grants an edge in battle. You're young, it's a perfect time to start."

Naruto transmitted his assent before focusing on another priority.

 _'...Alright...so...how would I stop it from hitting myself? Or anyone I cared about? I was maintaining the shape the whole time, but it's like it just kept leaking out...'_

Naruto thought as he experimentally emitted chakra from his hands. It came out with such ease that the little white youkai was positive that he didn't suffer any damage, but he applied the Mystical Palm technique all over his front repeatedly anyway. Then he remembered he was a dark clone and dispelled himself. Now more focused on training, the original Naruto left for the woods himself, leaving a dark clone behind in the futon.

 _'_ _ _ _I don't know how I would even contain it. A higher chakra output doesn't seem to help.__ If I added more chakra it would just get added to the technique, making it bigger in size like how you did it dad. It would probably leak chakra faster then or something..._ _'_

At the thought of containment, Minato remembered something.

"The larger a Rasengan becomes, the harder it becomes to preserve its shape. There was something my sensei did in order to expand the jutsu to gigantic proportions, to a size that would be impossible for a human to control. He used a certain method to do this, one that thankfully, I am aware of."

 _'What would that be?'_

Naruto asked curiously while Yami hid a grimace at the mention of Jiraiya.

"Using a different type of energy, one collected from the surroundings, from nature. I don't really use it much due to the constraints and my fighting style, but I can guarantee that nature chakra is different...much more...dense. Actually, it should suit you quite well. Its most basic requirement is to possess very large chakra reserves."

At this, both Naruto and Yami had a flash of realization. The dark youkai conjured an image of a scene from the Kyuubi's memory, its battle with Madara against the first hokage. Featured most prominently was the image of Hashirama's face as he rode around on a giant wood dragon. Minato watched surprisedly as his fellow hokage's dark eyes morphed to an amber yellow, a red color spreading across the tanned skin around the eyes to the ears, and a single red dot surrounded by a circle on his forehead.

 **"Whenever he did something like this, me and Naruto always see something...flow into him."**

"I think he called it senjutsu one time...is this what you're talking about dad?"

"Yes it is..."

Minato replied, somewhat taken back.

 _'They can somehow sense nature energy despite never using it before...or is it their dojutsu? Either way it's impressive.'_

 **"Can you elaborate?"**

"In order to use nature energy, you must take it in yourself and achieve what is called sage mode, which brings a whole host of advantages besides the ability to use sage jutsu such as enhancing every physical attribute: strength, speed, durability, stamina, reflexes, and perception. It also empowers all aspects of jutsu: ninjutsu, taijutsu and genjutsu. One's sensing capability is enhanced to the point of sensing incoming attacks without needing to see them. You can even turn surrounding natural energy to extend the reach of your attacks, which is normally very effective because such an aura is supposed to be invisible to those who haven't trained in senjutsu. However, it appears you can somehow see it..."

By the end of Minato's explanation, Yami was whistling impressedly.

 **"Wow, uh, what kind of drawbacks could possibly stop you from using this aaallll the time?"**

The yellow flash looked a bit abashed at this.

"Actually, I'm not that good at it. Chakra, as you know, is a combination of physical and spiritual energy. Achieving sage mode and using senjutsu requires you to take in a precise amount nature energy and balance that between the two parts of your chakra in order to form senjutsu."

"-So like from two halves to three thirds?"

Naruto wantonly exemplified, picturing a pie being cut in two and three.

"...That's a good way to look at it. For me, this process takes too long and I can't maintain the mode for long. Not to mention that after it runs out, in order to take in nature energy, you have to be completely still and requires absolute focus, which I feel was too great a risk in the serious battles I fought in my lifetime..."

 **'Yeah, I wouldn't imagine dad suddenly sitting down for a extended period of time during _that_ night.'**

Yami understandingly thought.

"Although, it looks like this guy here was able to bypass that, right dad?"

Naruto said, gesturing to the first hokage as the man immovably sat in a cross-legged position, riding his wood dragon across a mountain range.

"Yes. Why didn't I think of that? Then again I didn't really use my summons that often..."

Minato thought aloud.

 **"You should show us what it's like, father."**

Yami suddenly proposed.

"Hmmm? How would I do that? I don't sense any nature energy in this place."

As he finished saying the last word, Minato could see by the black-haired boy's grinning face that the dark youkai had some sort of plan. Yami backed up several steps away from Naruto and Minato and extended both arms out, palms pointing at each of them. The little boy backed up further, the distance between his arms shortening with each step. Once both arms got close enough to touch, Yami interlocked his fingers while keeping his palms facing out.

 **"You'll do so with this!"**

Immediately, Naruto could feel something different with himself, like his vision in the real world was cut off, and only his presence in the mindscape remained. He still had a sense of the real world, but it felt...more distant...like he wasn't actually there. Looking around in the mindscape, he saw Yami standing pridefully and...himself? Naruto knew for certain that he didn't make a dark clone, and the lookalike appeared really surprised as well.

"What's going on?"

The second the words left his mouth, Naruto knew something wasn't right. His voice sounded less childlike and high pitched, and was more steady and smooth. Looking down, he could see a green flak jacket covering his chest, and that he was wearing along with a white coat decorated with flames. It was then that the boy knew what must have happened.

"That handsign was oddly familiar. It's the Mind Reverse Body Technique; you switched me and dad."

 **"I know. Smart right? I'm getting the feeling that Yamanaka clan jutsu will continue to serve us well."**

Yami already had postulated that for senjutsu, they could possibly use the method behind the chakra absorption jutsu to absorb this nature energy, since the youkai could sort of sense and see its presence in the world. But the little black haired boy thought it would be better to see how Minato did it first. In the mindscape, the dark youkai took Naruto's now bigger hand and walked over and took their father's now smaller hand.

 **"I got the Mind Body Transmission jutsu active. Ready when you are, father."**

The dark youkai explained in short that perhaps examining the exact sensation of drawing nature energy in, of molding senjutsu chakra and gaining sage mode, would greatly help Naruto when he would try to do it himself later. Maybe when they switched back there would be lingering bodily sensations of some sort that could help them too.

Minato only had half a mind listening, the other half being completely stunned. He felt the cold night breeze acutely brush against his face. The moonlight suddenly felt so clear, so real. It was completely different than before. He took a deep breath with his son's body, relishing how the shivering air filled his lungs. He felt alive.

"Dad? You alright?"

The blond man's own voice shook him back to reality. Looking down and seeing his son's black pajamas, the man in child's body exhaled a deep breath.

"...Yes..."

Naruto's body remained standing immovably straight amongst the trees, but both youkai could feel a sudden shift. Through the shared senses from the transmission jutsu and the Uzugan they could see and feel from the surroundings that an energy of a blue color was being absorbed into their body from all directions. Both youkai could feel it gathering at the center of Naruto's body. A few seconds in, Minato began sending a thought their way.

 _'...While I'm accumulating the energy, I must mention that there are risks if the user doesn't precisely maintain the proper ratio between nature energy and chakra. If you take too little, nothing happens, but if you take too much, you'll turn to stone.'_

As Minato thought aloud, the two youkai beheld an image of a vast array of giant stone toad statues surrounded them, with a small waterfall flowing out the mouth of one of the frog statues. The waterfall stone toad itself stood in a much larger waterfall, and giant blades of grass taller than some of the tallest trees surrounding Konoha could be seen in the background.

 **"So this place is called Myobokuzan huh?"**

Yami commented, extracting the name and location out of Minato's thoughts on this little flashback.

"Wow...so many have failed. So for humans, it's not just turning to stone, isn't it. It's turning into a frog, then turning to stone."

Naruto said, after taking in Minato's knowledge that those old moss covered hunks of rock were all toad ancestors and people who failed to learn senjutsu over the ages. The Toad mountain conversation was cut off when both youkai detected a change in their body, an orange color beginning to form around the eyes.

 _'...I'm finished.'_

Minato thought. Yami quickly realized that his father's appraisal of Sage Mode benefits was completely correct, other than durability. The dark youkai didn't know how to tell if their body was now more durable or not; they still haven't tested the limits of the sturdiness they gained from devouring the Kyuubi. The black-haired boy carefully observed how nature energy began to congregate around Naruto's body, and pictured to himself how it would extend their attack range like their father mentioned. Meanwhile, Naruto thought with a little more vexation.

"What the..? Dad! That didn't take long at all!"

"Naruto...in a battle, every second is crucial. This took me thirty eight seconds to accomplish. In a fight, that is thirty seven seconds too long."

Minato patiently explained.

"...death can happen in less than an instant son, remember that."

Naruto remembered his father's duel with the masked man, how it was concluded in a blink of an eye.

"Ok dad!"

Now, the yellow flash wanted to fulfill one of his last interests before his death: taking the rasengan to the next level. Using his son's clone idea, the man in kid's body formed a single shadow clone out of a poof of smoke, and then instantly formed a watermelon-sized spiraling sphere in his hand, this one made with senjutsu chakra. Both youkai watched very carefully as the shadow clone slowly began infusing wind natured senjutsu chakra into the technique. Gradually, four white spinning blades manifested around the Rasengan, each growing larger and materializing the shuriken shape. The high screeching sound echoed through the woods once again. However, this time their shadow clone didn't instantly pop out of nowhere. With Minato holding the jutsu out above him, the both youkai could see how it was more stable, no waves of tiny blue needle looking things emanating out of it. As a cohesive whole, Naruto sensed that this Rasenshuriken distinctively felt more dangerous, more powerful than the first volatile one.

 _'...It's so stable, it could probably last a while even if it left my hand.'_

Minato contemplated aloud, already grasping the new functions this technique could achieve. Naruto and Yami, thinking along similar lines, put it in simpler words.

"So we cou **ld throw it?"**

Naruto then added.

"Yo dad! Test it out!"

Minato was keen to do so, but also wanted to test the effects of this finished jutsu against an enemy. With that in mind, he threw it at his shadow clone, which nodded and didn't move. The Rasenshuriken flew at an extremely fast pace, far faster than how Minato originally threw it, at a speed he roughly calculated by sight to be more than four times his speed using the body flicker when he was alive. The shadow clone was hit at the waist and dispelled in the first second, and the Rasenshuriken continued on cutting through the trees and the undergrowth. By the time the second passed, they could no longer see it. Minato didn't immediately follow it's path of destruction. He was caught up by something interesting from the memories they acquired from the shadow clone. Although the clone looked to have been cut once and dispelled, it certainly didn't feel that way. It felt like it was sliced and stabbed a countless number of times at that instant of contact. As the man in child's body began following the path of the Rasenshuriken's destruction, he carefully inspected the many tree stumps along the way. It looked like a clean cut at first glance, but it wasn't. At a closer look, Minato could see the wooden surface chipped away at a very fine level.

He was disrupted from further musing when suddenly, he heard a great blast of rushing wind. Looking up through the treeline, he saw a massive spherical vortex erupt from what looked like to be quite far away. Pushing Naruto's body far faster than he ever had pushed his own, Minato quickly arrived at a scene of absolute devastation. Yep, the scope of destruction of the senjutsu rasenshuriken vastly surpassed the first one made. Amidst what used to be a large grove of trees lied a giant spherical crater roughly the size of the full Kyuubi.

"After traveling a certain distance, it explodes."

Minato analyzed. Tracing their path back to the location from where they threw it, the yellow flash estimated it to be about four kilometers.

 **"Seems about right."**

Yami agreed.

 **"Presumably, it would also explode if it grinded against something it couldn't cut?"**

An inventive gleam passed through Minato's eyes.

 _'Probably, but why don't we confirm it now? I must admit, I want to see how far this can be taken.'_

He was already brainstorming different ways to increase its destructive potential. Meanwhile Naruto was getting particularly excited.

"Hey! Hey! We got an awesome new move!"

Minato sweatdropped, causing a frown to mar the face of Naruto's body. Watching his son jump around happily in his body was pretty surreal.

"We established that to use this rasenshuriken, you need senjutsu. Naruto we should switch back. Aren't you supposed to be learning this?"

"Heck yeah! Let's do it!"

* * *

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	9. Mentors

Of the three main jutsu types Naruto was able to rapidly excel in ninjutsu and genjutsu, using the bountiful memories and experience of Konoha's root shinobi. The last one...there was a little circumstance impeding him from instantly replicating it.

Taijutsu as Yami had told him before, was hand to hand combat. The most basic of the three, typically not requiring chakra. It was true that Naruto had a plentiful amount of memories of Root ninjas practicing taijutsu and of them using it in real combat situations. But as for trying it out himself, taking in the multitude of experiences of skilled root ninjas only had him pivoting accounting for extra weight that Naruto's child body didn't possess, throwing him off balance. He failed all sorts of acrobatic movements that required absolute precision because his childlike proportions didn't match the adults. Basically, all of his movements were off. Sure he could just transform into their bodies to fit, but he had to divert some of his attention to maintaining the transformation technique, which would be disastrous should it suddenly fail during a real fight.

So he thought it best to start from the ground up. Naruto had just been acclimating to when the root ninjas where young enough so that Naruto's body was about the same height and build as theirs. Still though, when they were that young they weren't exactly as skilled as when they were adults, but it was something. Naruto then just watched memories of them as adults and tried to copy their motions by sight, not by trying to take them in. The last he could do was then making dark clones and sparring with them. It was actually really hard for him to win or lose against the copies since they were so connected. If the split vision wasn't disorienting enough, Naruto could feel and thus sort of anticipate every move they did, and vice versa. He did have the shadow clone, the water clone and every other elemental clone to which he didn't share a connection with but...shadow clones popped in one hit, the water clone only had a tenth of his non-existent skill in taijutsu, and so on and so forth. In the end, dark clones were his best option, no matter how headache-inducing.

So in the mindscape he practiced with Yami, who he couldn't read, who beat him every time due to the fact that the dark youkai could read him. Out of curiosity, Naruto asked to practice a few times with Yami trying to not read his mind, and found that they were evenly matched, just like his fights with the dark clones.

 **"We both have the same capabilities. I'm you, remember?"**

Yami reminded.

 **"Anyway, for this kind of thing Naruto...you should train with your real body. Not here in the mindscape. I know the whole dark clone connection is a bit troubling and the fact we train our genjutsu in the mindscape, but...you're not moving your real body when you fight me."**

Minato, who had been watching this exchange, spoke up.

"Naruto, taijutsu is something trained with the body. Straining the muscles, making unfamiliar motions easier to execute with repetition, building up your motor learning. What happens in this place is more of a mental simulation."

At this, Naruto turned around and glanced at his father, which turned into a fully-fledged stare, as if the boy realized a sudden desire. Even if what Yami and Minato said before the case, Naruto wanted to test against his father first, to see where he stood first before he trained in the real world. Yami too, was curious, and both youkai decided to take on their father together. It was a test of his body alone...or was it mental body? It meant no slow motion stuff from the Uzugan, no defensive black shrouds that could harm the enemy.

The end result?

They never won, even when both youkai fought together in the mindscape. It wasn't just speed. In the mindscape, where Naruto didn't really worry about catching anybodies' attention, he was able to push himself faster, going at speeds that would easily rip the muscles of a normal human to shreds. Even when he went faster than Minato, the man just had a more practiced ease with his body, a fluidity to his motion. By now, Yami had transmitted memories of Naruto's rampage of the root to the little white youkai. The little white youkai saw that his strength was nothing to laugh at. While a menacing dark fog-like aura rolled off his form in waves, he had clawed through the metal walls of the root base like tinfoil. Naruto imagined that he could probably wipe out a mountain with just his strength, like how folklore affirmed the Kyuubi to have done so. Somehow though, that didn't seem to matter to his dad. Minato would just push every one of Naruto and Yami's blows to the side, in a direction that wasn't towards the blond man. His father had crazy reflexes, like when he diverted Naruto's punch aimed at the back of his head without even looking. Both youkai immediately stopped when their father started flickering again and remembered for such high-speed movement Minato must have been continually using up chakra in his...mind avatar body (Is that what it should be called?). After having his chakra replenished, their father did proclaim that they had the potential to vastly surpass him though, news that raised the small boy's mood.

"In a real battle, one of the worst things that could happen is that your opponent acclimates to your style. Your way of fighting in general is pretty unpredictable, which vastly undermines that possibility. Although right now, it is sure to crumble against more truly skilled opponents...all we have to do is get you to such a level."

In the physical world, Naruto began practicing his taijutsu against his dark clones again, with his father in his head giving him tips. An hour later, just when the black sky was beginning to lighten, Yami had brought up.

 **"We should train while covering up our eyes too."**

Naruto saw that his father didn't react negatively with this idea, so the boy would do it. But before that...

 _'...why?'_

 **"I just thought of it, like, what if we have to fight in the mist-"**

 _'-I would blow it away with futon jutsu-'_

Naruto interrupted, while Yami continued unfazed.

 **"-or in any other circumstances that should prevent us from using sight?...Just do it alright?"**

Yami already knew Naruto's true thoughts anyway. And so the little boy did, creating a blindfold out of dark fog for himself. Time passed, and the white youkai stopped as he heard the dawn's chorus of birds break through the air. He removed his blindfold just in time to see the sun creep over the horizon.

* * *

It turns out the rain orphanage had mandatory shinobi training classes. The next day, after having breakfast in a little cafeteria down the hallway from the bedrooms, one of the caretakers (the first one the dark clone met in the place), corralled them into a group and led them out. Ayako, Naruto hearing that as her name, led them through one of back exits of the orphanage, which led to a rather large open space. Actually, it was a large wet open space...since it was raining. The little boy could see the opposite side as a wall several meters tall, a hand rail extending far in both directions on the top of the wall. It was a cutoff to a higher elevation of the industrial city, and somewhere to the far left he spotted a flight of stairs leading there.

Suddenly, a flicker of something caught his eyes, which traced a blurring figure speeding downwards to a spot a few feet in front of them. A splash of water spouted from that location, falling away to reveal a man of average height wearing a dark blue raincloak that covered most of his upper body, his hands poking out beneath it. Matching the color of the city, his pants were grey, and he wore the standard shinobi sandals. His dark brown hair was wrapped in a stiff ponytail and the lower part of his face was covered by a rebreather mask, which was attached to his Hidden Rain forehead protector that framed both sides of his face. His eyebrows seemed to naturally slanted in such a way that it gave him the constant appearance of anger, not that Naruto could see any in his dark eyes. The little boy sensed conflicting emotions from him, the most discernible being resignation with a dash of annoyance.

"Bah, another day with the brats..."

Naruto's sharp ears distinctively heard the rain ninja mutter above the sound of the rain and the friendly chatter of the children amongst themselves. The kids' voices died down as the man appeared though, save Ajisai, who was coincidentally standing next to Naruto. Seeing his unfamiliar look, the purple haired girl tugged his sleeve once before pointing to the rain ninja.

"That's our teacher, Aikoku-sensei."

She said shortly.

"Uh ok, thanks."

Naruto blinked.

 _'...I didn't even ask and...well, whatever.'_

This little exchange didn't go unnoticed to Aikoku, who immediately recognized Naruto as a new face. The rain ninja did a quick head count just to make sure. Naruto could sense no surprise from him though, and assumed that new arrivals to the orphanage perhaps weren't quite that out of the ordinary.

"Listen up!"

Aikoku barked, his hands forming a tiger handsign. Another him quickly materialized out of the falling rain.

"As usual, we'll spend the morning with physical conditioning under the elements."

The rain shinobi gestured up at the raincloud covered sky to emphasize his point.

"Everyone follow my clone, except for you. Come here kid."

Naruto saw that he was the one pointed at, and one of the older kids lightly slapped him on the back.

"Don't worry, he does this for everybody in the beginning."

Meanwhile, the clone began running off in what Naruto could see as a deliberately slow speed for a shinobi, and the children congregated in a group behind to catch up. The little boy felt a hand on his shoulder steer him to the side of the orphanage where the edges of the roof blocked the rain from falling on him. He looked up to see Aikoku leaning against the wall, crossing his arms underneath his raincloak.

"You know my name. What would you like to be called?"

"Naruto."

Aikoku registered this, and took a few steps until he stood right in front of the boy, whose head was at the lower part of his chest.

"I'm the man who will teach you how to be a shinobi starting now. You'll refer to me as Aikoku-sensei, and I expect you to follow my directions. Is that clear?"

There was strength in his slightly distilled voice from the mask. The little boy was rather hesitant, still retaining his negative impression for ninjas. In a flash, the dark clone recalled his mother's dying words to him; the part about listening to his teachers.

"Yes Aikoku-sensei."

The man nodded, and instantly his entire body was coated in a blue outline.

"What you see surrounding me is called chakra, an energy source all shinobi can control. You could say that if you couldn't use it, you can't become one. For now, just know it as the combination of your mental and physical power..."

Aikoku then proceeded to summarize everything about a ninja: The missions, the different facets of jutsu...everything. He spoke in a unhurried and practiced manner, as if he had said this speech many times before. Almost every explanation was also accompanied by an example: for fuinjutsu, he pulled out a scroll from under his raincloak, etc. There was a few things he had no example to give, like the nature transformations he didn't know or of bloodlines (the rain shinobi had none).

"... I do not expect a kid like you to memorize everything I just said. If you have any questions, or want me to repeat any of this later, do not hesitate to ask."

Naruto had already known all that information about ninjas, and his first question was about something else entirely.

"Aikoku-sensei...do you not like us?"

Even throughout the speech, Naruto had a feeling that Aikoku didn't really want to be here.

"Huh?"

"Bah, another day with the brats."

Naruto repeated Aikoku's own words to his surprised face.

"You heard that?"

The rain ninja looked searchingly into Naruto's eyes, but could find nothing. He distinctively got the impression that this little kid wasn't simple. Naruto didn't respond, only evenly matching Aikoku's stare.

"...Look kid, it's not that I hate you guys, it's just I'd rather be out there...eliminating Ame's threats, sabotaging enemy information and the like. Teaching the next generation, the land of rain's future defenders...it does sound good...but I feel it's so boring in comparison. You wouldn't understand, you haven't even been on a mission before."

The man's eyes then narrowed.

"Make no mistake, it's still my job to train you all to your fullest potential, and I intend to do so. I refuse to burden the Ame of the future with incompetent shinobi."

Naruto was reminded what he had heard from some of his fellow orphans yesterday, how not all of them wanted to become a ninja.

"...What if I don't want to be a ninja?"

Aikoku's response was immediate.

"Then I refuse to burden the Ame of the future with defenseless civilians."

After saying that reflexive answer, he seemed to realize what Naruto had said.

"You don't want to be a ninja? Do you have something you want to become instead?"

"I want to be a doctor."

Naruto said this as he would state a fact. Aikoku's eyebrows raised a bit, and as the man surveyed Naruto's small figure, he felt he could vaguely understand the reasons behind this desire.

"Oh...That's not a bad profession to strive for. Unfortunately, I don't know medical ninjutsu."

Naruto could see how the rain shinobi thought of that as an issue, but the man seemed to put that off for another time.

"But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Do you have any other questions right now?"

"No."

"Then make this shape with your hands."

Aikoku curled all the fingers on his right hand except the index and wrapped his left hand over that, keeping his left index and middle fingers upright.

"Do you remember what this is?"

"It's the ram seal. It helps increase concentration for chakra usage."

Naruto said while making the hand sign. The little boy's explanation about the ram seal were exactly as Aikoku had said it in his summary, and the rain ninja noticed it.

"You're a sharp kid. Right, so to get started, try to draw out your chakra. It's hard to put in words, but try to reach for...a sense of anything within yourself and pump it out."

Accessing your chakra was something Aikoku knew didn't happen on the first try. Like with other newcomer orphans, their little intro lesson always ended with them trying and failing to do so. Which was why it was so surprising to see a blue aura spring to life around Naruto the second he finished speaking.

"Kid...you..."

The rain shinobi was quick to regain his composure. He took out a piece of paper from under his raincloak.

"This, I didn't explain to you. It's called chakra induction paper, and it finds out a person's chakra affinity, the nature transformation a person can learn the fastest."

He passed it to Naruto, who took it in his hand. After looking it over a few times, all Naruto could see was that it was a normal sheet of paper. Then he saw Aikoku take out another one and sensed a tiny flare of chakra from the man's hand holding the paper. Almost immediately, the paper grew wet and Aikoku crushed it in a fist.

"It responds to chakra, so all you have to do is draw up your chakra again like you just did before and bring it to contact with the paper. My affinity is water so it got wet, earth crumbles, fire burns, wind cuts, and lightning crinkles. Got it?"

"Alright Aikoku-sensei."

Naruto said, and channeled his chakra into the paper. What happened next made Aikoku's slanted brows comically rise, his mouth dropping open beneath his mask. Naruto's sheet first split in two, and one piece crinkled and suddenly burnt to ash, while the other grew damp before crumbling away.

"No way..."

The rain ninja breathed, his gaze towards Naruto slowly changing to a look Naruto couldn't decipher, but he could practically feel the gears turning in the man's head. Yami already had explained to Naruto about chakra affinities, and the small boy thought that maybe, his devouring ability had taken the chakra natures of others, resulting with the chakra induction paper's reaction. The little boy did consume a lot of root ninjas, after all. That meant he didn't know what his original affinity or affinities were, but who cares? He had all five.

"What now, Aikoku-sensei?"

"...In this first little introduction I always do an assessment of a kid's potential, and in your case I've seen enough."

The rain shinobi changed the subject, all the while letting no emotions leak into his voice.

"Naruto, a shinobi must always train their bodies and hone their skill. For now, rejoin your fellows in their physical conditioning for the rest of the morning. Everything jutsu related comes after lunch."

The dark clone stared over at the group of kids who were doing some sort of endurance drill by the tall wall with the railing on top, Aikoku's water clone supervising them. Naruto ran from the cover of the roof into the rain, crossing the large space to reach them.

* * *

During lunch, Naruto was curious as to what Aikoku was planning to teach them next. However, a few questions around ended up lowering his anticipation. It turns out the rain shinobi spent most of the jutsu related session on chakra control exercises (on further inquiry they were revealed to be what Naruto considered to be reaaaaally easy like the sticking a piece of paper on your forehead) with the percentage spent on actual jutsu being quite small.

"Sensei says it's because chakra control makes it easier to use jutsu."

One of the older kids named Nimura said. Naruto still didn't feel satisfied with this, already having proved to be quite proficient at chakra control. With the creation of the Rasenshuriken last night, Naruto was in the mood to develop some more super awesome stuff. By now, both Yami and Minato were mentally in close proximity, interested in what was happening in Rain.

"It's fine Naruto. A big part in being a shinobi is not just acquiring new skills, but honing the ones they already possess."

Minato said. The yellow flash was relayed a quick condensed version of the dark clone's morning from Yami, smiling proudly as Naruto's chakra paper reaction came up. The yellow flash had already hypothesized about Naruto's affinities, considering the ease he replicated the ninjutsu from the root shinobi. Still, it was all the more remarkable to have it confirmed.

After Naruto thought on it a bit more, he realized it technically didn't really matter anyway. The white youkai still had his night practice time. The little boy chose to stay in Rain because it gave him a home, not for ninja training. The jutsu being taught at the end was the water bullet jutsu, which Naruto already knew. Other than him, a blind boy named Kagari seemed to know it already and was helping the other kids out. While sitting on top of the railing, Aikoku silently observed Naruto spit out a stream of water without using any handsigns before proceeding to help the other kids too.

"Dangit Naruto, how did you get this down already? What's the trick?"

A little girl Naruto's age named Fuyo said exasperatedly. Black hair covered the left side of her face, and her visible right purple eye was half open, giving her a lazy appearance. She was one of the apathetic looking kids out of the whole group that Naruto ended up talking to anyway. Here it appeared she wanted to learn the jutsu quickly to get it over with.

"You...knead chakra in the stomach into water and then...throw it all up...? Well it's not really throwing up but something like that."

Naruto didn't really think how about he did the water bullet jutsu, he just did it. This resulted in this haphazard explanation when he tried to put it in words.

"Errr, thanks for the info I guess."

Fuyo idly replied. She wasn't too impressed by that clumsy explanation. Ajisai, who was standing and listening nearby, silently made the tiger, ox, tiger, and rat handsigns. A steady stream of water flew out her mouth in the next second.

"No way Sai-chan, you got it from that?"

Fuyo said in real surprise, to which Ajisai only nodded in response.

"Oh, more people got it? So how many are left?"

Aikoku began to hear the commotion and leapt down before them.

"Me."

Fuyo answered dully. She wasn't alone. A quick count revealed that nine out of the twenty seven didn't know it. Fuyo turned back to Naruto.

"In the first place, what does kneading chakra in the stomach mean?"

"It means kneading chakra in the stomach."

Ajisai said simply, speaking up before Naruto could respond.

"That's...That's...I just don't get it...haaah..."

Fuyo was irked a bit, but then sighed.

"...Maybe I just don't have the talent for thi-"

"-Silence!"

Aikoku suddenly shouted. The little blackhaired girl jumped in fright and quickly found her sensei standing over her.

"...Uh...W-what is it sensei?"

Fuyo said sheepishly, aware that all eyes were on her now.

"Never say that you don't have talent! You all have talent, understand?!"

Aikoku thundered aloud, addressing Fuyo and also to them all, his voice truly matching his natural angry look.

"Besides, talent is good, but passion is best. Change your bleak attitude, am I clear?!"

"H-hai..."

"Louder!"

Fuyo closed her eyes and yelled out on the top of her lungs.

"HAAAAAAAIII-"

The little girl did so until she was out of breath. In the past for Naruto, back in Konoha whenever someone was this mad towards to him (almost whenever people saw him), they would angrily curse him and say stuff like how he would never amount to anything. This was...Aikoku yelled at about the same volume...but Naruto started to feel a force surge within him, feeling more giddy.

 _'You all have talent...?...Passion is best...?...I like this...I like this a lot.'_

 **'Heheh...but for us, I feel we have both talent and passion, right? Then what does that make us?'**

Yami thoughtfully contemplated to himself.

 **"Anyway yeah... _hollering_ out positive encouragement...It's pretty interesting eh dad?"**

Minato nodded in response, surveying how the whole group stood outside in the heavy rain, every child's eyes locked upon their ninja teacher. It was certainly different to his memories of Konoha's academy.

"Good. We are done with jutsu practice for today. Fuyo, prove to me that you have changed. Suiren, you will be her opponent. Go."

At once, everyone but Naruto seemed to know what was going on. The children all moved as one to the side while leaving Fuyo and another slim faced little girl with dark green hair standing.

"What's going on?"

Naruto asked aloud as he too sat himself down. Aikoku, who remained standing, glanced at him and sternly responded.

"The rest of the time I spend today will be on traditional shinobi sparring, where I will pick two of you to face off for taijutsu practice while the others watch. I demand the utmost respect from you for your comrades when you observe them all fight today, so no cheering or any clamor of any kind. Understand?"

Naruto nodded readily, realizing everyone else was quiet, and watched as both girls made a half tiger/ram seal and proceeded to fight. After the fight, they made the same sign, but locked their fingers together. The little boy remembered from when he spied on Konoha's academy that they did almost the exact same thing, 'cept the whole silence thing from the people watching. Those leaf academy students were a noisy bunch.

The spars progressed quickly after that. Naruto realized that he didn't share a hive mind connection with the other kids like he did with his dark clones, and thought that he could finally start accumulating some actual one on one physical fighting experience. After all, in a real fight he didn't expect to be able to know his opponent's thoughts and vice versa.

Although this seemed like a good solution, there was one thing the white youkai realized he might have to watch out for. From the memories of his rampage, Naruto had seen how soft humans could be, remembering how in his mindless rage he had blitzed into a root shinobi at an unavoidable speed, caving the masked ninja's chest in the process. He didn't want to smash the rain orphans to a pulp; he sort of felt a kinship with them that he most certainly didn't share with the kids back in Konoha's orphanage. When he wasn't on a rampage, Naruto didn't ever really have problems controlling his strength before, so it was fine.

 **"Mental strength-wise, I'm pretty sure we're good as long as we don't spike up our emotions. I kind of feel that we have good self-control when we're lucid, yeah?"**

Yami said, agreeing with Naruto's evaluation of himself.

"In very simple terms, it's mind over matter, son."

Minato commented. The fights progressed quickly after that, and Naruto got to fight a few times with thankfully, no fatal results. Suddenly, two hours before Ayako had told him it would be dinner, they stopped.

* * *

"Uh, where are we going guys?"

Naruto asked, following along as Aikoku lead them to one of the higher levels of the city, away from the emptier districts.

"It's Saturday! We usually visit god's tower today."

One of the kids said, clapping him on the shoulder. God's tower? Something to do with that ginger man then. As they walked, Naruto took note of interesting looking places that he hadn't gone to yet. With a wandering eye, he spotted to his left a sign surrounding by lit orange light-bulbs above an entryway, featuring two hearts pierced by an arrow above the words 'Make Out Pub Battle'. In his childish innocence, he marked it in his mind as a place to visit later.

"No."

His father immediately vetoed it.

"Huh? Why not?"

Minato scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Ah, this kind of place is for when you are...older. Perhaps it's best if you don't go at all."

Seeing that his son's uncomprehending look, Minato remembered something.

"Do you recall the three vices of shinobi that your mother mentioned?"

"They were alcohol, women, and money."

Naruto recited.

"Well, places like Make-Out whatever represent those sorts of things."

Yami knew that his father was trying to discourage Naruto from going there and why he was doing so. The dark youkai stayed silent, knowing all about those sorts of places, having the memories of root ninjas being there for information gathering or sleeping with their marks and the like.

"If you say so dad."

Naruto replied, already putting the matter away in his mind. He noticed Daiki waving cheerfully to a store on the opposite side of the make out place, and spotted a brown-haired girl who looked a little older than Daiki waving back. It must be the tea shop place he was talking about the other day. Naruto and the group walked farther and farther, even reaching into the central hub of the city. Eventually, they stopped before what appeared to be the tallest tower of the whole city. It was covered in metal pipes from top to bottom like the rest were, but had four humanoid faces at each side and was connected to two smaller towers. Naruto spotted with his far-distance vision that one of the faces near the top had its tongue sticking out, the eyes holding a ripple pattern like the Rinnegan. Looking up and blinking the raindrops away, Naruto stretched his vision and saw that the rainclouds seemed to congregate right over the tower.

A tall fenced gate with the sign 'No Tresspassers' blocked their way along with a some sort of moat fifteen meters thick around the whole building. Most of the kids immediately jumped into the water in a splash, so Naruto did as well, guessing that they perhaps weren't tresspassers. He watched Aikoku leap onto the water's surface and clap his hands together.

"Suiton: Water Colliding Wave!"

The rain ninja shouted. Some of the children laughed happily as the water beneath them surged up to form a wave, carrying them over the fence and depositing them onto solid ground next to the tower's entrance.

"All of you, quickly learn waterwalking and get here yourselves, understand?"

Aikoku barked to them as they got up.

"Yes sir!"

Came a chorus of budding voices. As Naruto walked inside, he was immediately confronted with a musty smell. He saw rows upon rows of names and caskets, urns and the like. He quietly realized that it was a morgue.

"Visit your folks. When you're done, we'll meet up here."

Aikoku said somberly before disappearing in a poof of smoke. The children quickly departed to elsewhere in the building, some silent, some carefree, each seemingly in a solitary pursuit. No one was talking to each other. Naruto saw some leave up the stairs and below, while another fraction simply stood quietly by the entrance. Naruto guessed that they didn't know who their parents were. There were other couple kids in the ground floor, and Naruto silently observed one silently praying and another happily recounting the past week, each standing before a pair of names. In the mindscape, that particular dark clone wordlessly walked over and hugged Minato, who returned it.

After a few minutes, Naruto got a hold of himself. His parents weren't here...but...who says he couldn't explore?

* * *

In the top floor of the tallest tower, three figures could be seen in a shadowy room. One of them knelt before the other two, faint light reflecting off his rebreather mask.

"It's hard to believe Pain-sama, but I believe a spy has somehow eluded your power and infiltrated the village. One of the children under my guidance, his name is Naruto."

"No. He is no spy."

A deep voice responded, grey rippled eyes flashing in the darkness. Pain allowed to himself to see a only little bit of the Naruto's past. Within the first few seconds, he decided he had enough of those memories. Fractured images all cast in a murky shade, making it hard to see just what was going on...the smell of burning flesh...the constant screaming of a torn throat present throughout...The distant distorted laughter of what sounded like a crowd of mocking voices, eerily echoing...

It was something out of a nightmare. The God of Ame knew that Naruto must have gone through a ton of pain to have those sorts of experiences crop up in his mind. Pain wasn't too sure what Naruto was, but spy definitely wasn't a suspicion. Aikoku didn't question the words of his god, and looked genuinely relieved at this.

"Oh, of course you have checked the boy already, please forgive me."

"Why did you think he was a spy?"

A visible pair of neutral amber eyes flicked over to the kneeling man.

"He passed my evaluations at such a level where I could only believe that he was one of _those_ young foreign infiltration agents who have already learnt it or..."

"Or?"

Pain prompted, his voice darkening, apparently in remembrance of said foreign infiltration agents.

"A raindrop of enormous talent."

At this, both figures observed a visible smile break Pain's face, light glinting off his teeth.

 _'Who is this Naruto to provoke such a reaction from Pain-sama?'_

The rain ninja did not think it was his place to ask, however, so he did not.

"Explain."

Pain commanded in good spirits.

"He has exhibited a very high sense of chakra, able to circulate it through his body on the first try. When sparring with the other children, his way of fighting is rather unorthodox and unskilled, but he holds the true instinct of a fighter, and I carefully judged that he was holding back his true strength. His natural body strength is...at the very least many times more of what he showed me. He was able to sealessly reproduce the first jutsu I introduced to him, the water bullet technique. Lastly, the paper test reveals that he holds all five elemental affinities."

Aikoku then exhibited a much humbler side to these two shadowy figures.

"To be honest, with my meager abilities and his potential, I believe he will quickly learn all I have to offer."

Throughout Aikoku's explanation, Pain looked more and more enthused.

"I will teach him every Sunday. I may train Naruto on more days, but for now...Sunday."

"You will teach him Pain-sama?!"

Came Aikoku's shocked response, leaving him wondering about Naruto's relation to Pain again. However, once more, he reaffirmed to himself that it wasn't his place to question.

"Please pardon my outburst. I will bring him to you tomorrow morning."

His business concluded, the rain ninja disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The rain shinobi wasn't the only one surprised by that outburst. The other figure's amber eyes slightly widened when Pain had announced his teaching desire.

"Nagato...are you sure this is a good idea?"

The lights flicked on, bringing both silhouettes to full view. The one who had just spoken was a relatively tall woman with short, straight blue hair, lavender eye shadow accompanying her detached amber eyes, and a single piercing below her bottom lip. She, like the orange haired pierced man, was also clad in a black cloak decorated with red clouds.

"Konan...This child knows pain to such a degree...and now this...he sounds more and more like me by the second...besides, he's family."

The blue-haired woman was aware of this, having been the one to hand Pain Naruto's newly created profile the day before.

"...Let's just say I'm curious..."

The orangehaired man reached into his cloak, taking out a worn book in his hand, 'The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi' emblazoned on its front cover.

"...Do you remember this, Konan? Doesn't this just feel like fate?"

Pain's deep voice sounded oddly fond. Konan evidently recognized the book, particularly the name of its main character. However, she dismissed it as coincidence, having another concern in mind.

"But your body...Sunday was supposed to be recuperation for you..."

Earnest worry broke through the bluehaired woman's neutral visage.

"It's fine, I won't run myself ragged teaching."

The man with ringed eyes replied. The paper woman nodded, believing him and also not wanting to speak against this matter any longer. Honestly for these past several years this was the first time Konan ever saw Pain look forward to something so much. She felt it marked a positive change for him away from dreariness, or at least she hoped so. Suddenly, as if the woman sensed something, she turned around and proceeded to burst into a large mass of papers, dispersing in all directions.

* * *

Naruto continued his exploration of the tower, climbing higher and higher. Not a single soul was present on the higher levels, and the morgue only seemed to extend about twenty levels. So far, the higher floors seemed to hold either empty rooms or all sorts of complicated looking machinery. Naruto currently was checking out some sort of low rise platform that was heavily illuminated by a light overhead. Looking closer, it was size an adult could lay on, and Naruto could faintly smell the scent of...dead stuff? Like the same smell he got from dead animals. Suddenly, a mass of paper flew in from every entrance to the room, all beginning to converge into one humanoid figure. Color quickly blossomed in the white texture, and before long Naruto beheld a bluehaired lady dressed in the same cloak he saw Pain wearing.

"Awfully adventurous, aren't you?"

The lady said, regarding the little boy impassively. Naruto stared blankly back.

"Follow me."

She says simply, turning around. Should he trust her? Should he not trust her?

 _'My senses don't lie...or at least, I hope so.'_

The little boy didn't detect any ill-intent, and so he trailed along behind her. Watching a few sheets of paper flitter around the lady as she walked, Naruto was struck with a sense of familiarity. He felt there was some sort of connection to be made, but didn't know what.

 **"She can control paper; we're in god's tower. I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say that she's supposedly the 'angel' everyone's talking about."**

Yami said, and Naruto mentally snapped his fingers in response.

 _'Yeah, that was it. Thanks Yami.'_

The dark youkai only nodded in response, focused more on their destination. Both youkai could sense the chakra signature of the orange haired man on the top of the tower. Following the paper lady, Naruto didn't explore each floor like he did before, so they reached the top a little faster than he would have expected, only to be confronted with a wall the second they reached the top floor. The paper lady made what Naruto now recognized as the seal of confrontation and extended her other palm towards the wall. The wall's surface stretched to form a large hole that both Naruto and the bluehaired lady stepped through into a well lit room. It was mostly empty, and Naruto saw that the far side had a large opening with a tongue looking precipice extending outward into the falling rain. Just before the big tongue thing stood a man with spiky orange hair...and Rinnegan eyes. Pain.

"Uzumaki Naruto is your name?"

The man's pierced face bore no telling expression, but Naruto could feel a bit of anticipation from him so he responded in kind.

"Yes!"

At that, the man smiled warmly, shattering his previous emotionless countenance.

"Well we're family kiddo, nice to meet you. My name is Uzumaki Nagato."

Inside Naruto's mindscape, Minato blinked in shock, not only because of the Uzumaki status but also that Nagato was one of the three names from that old abandoned house somewhere in the land of rain.

 _'So he is...one of sensei's students?'_

Minato thought privately. It could be a coincidence, so the blond man didn't think too deeply on it. Meanwhile, Naruto was initially dumbfounded but energetically rebounded.

"Nice to meet you too Uncle!"

The little boy immediately caught the ginger man in a tight hug.

 _'Uncle huh?'_

Nagato thought. It didn't sound too bad. Slowly, his arms found their way around Naruto's back. Turning his head a little, Naruto looked over at the calm blue haired lady.

"Who's she?"

Nagato shared a glance with her before answering.

"She's your aunt Konan."

He said, his voice slightly amused. Konan blinked, her cheeks reddening at the subtle nuance. Naruto smiled happily as he ran over to give her a hug as well. For Minato, part of him was happy for this meeting, while he also thought:

 _'Nagato and Konan...So they're definitely...wow, what a small world...or is it fate?'_

* * *

 **This was supposed to be a much larger chapter but I cut it in half...like I did to several of the previous chapters. Ah whatever, I'll end this one here. Btw, I think Aikoku roughly translates to love for the country or something. Could be wrong. Idk.**

 **Review/Fav/Follow pls :/ (Or all three)**


	10. Terrorists for Dinner

Naruto never decided on giving up his journey to the land of demons. On the same day he went to god's tower, another dark clone journeyed on west beyond the land of rain.

Bright blue skies. The sun shining brightly overhead. Naruto lied contently on the bowsprit of a huge ship, a long bar of wood as thick as a tree trunk. Pelicans flew overhead, blackened by soot from resting near the ship's funnel. The little boy was almost completely relaxed, gazing at the slow back and forth motion of the waves, bits of the forest on the visible shore passing his vision as the ship kept moving.

Almost three hours ago, after the little boy had crossed the border between the land of rain and stone, he spotted an extremely wide river possessing the thickness of a small lake. Mentally consulting the map, he saw it was named the Crosscut River and ran from the ocean down south, headed up through the land of rivers before cutting to the west through the land of wind a bit before heading north into the land of stone. The river cut through almost the entirety of that small country, but curved north again into the land of earth just before the land of stone's western border. Normally, Naruto would've thought nothing more about it but a shape in the distance on the river caught his eye.

Focusing his vision a bit, he saw it was a huge ship with two masts of unfurled sails, a tall funnel in between them, leaking black smoke into the air. Across the hull Naruto made out the huge words 'S.S December' with a smaller phrase of 'Kaminari Enterprises' just above it. It didn't look particularly like a ship geared up for battle; there were no cannons or any weapons to be seen. On the deck he made out the figures of people dressed in white uniforms with strange inverted hats moving about. The ship was following the river westward, and Naruto sensed only weak chakra signatures on board (what Yami had classified as 'civilian' level), so the little white youkai made the carefree decision to check it out.

Of course, given his nature to not attract attention if he could help it, Naruto sneaked aboard invisibly after waterwalking his way as it passed by. He saw all the sights the topside had to offer, even climbing up both masts. Overhearing a conversation between a few of the white uniformed guys, Naruto determined that it was what they called 'merchant vessel' that was going to deliver at Wakkanai port, which Naruto remembered was the farthest west the river stretched in the land of stone before curving north. Good. The little boy went inside the bridge next, deciding to venture belowdeck afterwards. After melding through the wall of the bridge, inside he saw a stout man dressed in a more official looking white uniform. He was very tall and grizzled, a greying stubble coating his wide jaw, an officer's cap on his head. The man also seemed a bit jolly, whistling as he handled what Naruto supposed was the steering wheel, possessing deep laugh lines on his face.

After looking around the room a bit, Naruto stopped in his tracks when the man suddenly stopped his merry tune and spoke.

"I've been captain of this ship for over thirty years. I think I got a pretty good sense of when there's someone there!"

The big man didn't move though, still keeping his eyes front, looking out the windows while keeping both hands steady on the wheel.

"Didn't see anything, so are you a spirit or summat? Why are you here spirit? I swear if you're gonna haunt me and my crew I'll fight ya! I don't care if I can't touch ya!"

Naruto sensed...worry for something other than self-preservation beneath the captain's bluster. The little boy was more concerned by the fact his presence was detected. He checked again, and confirmed the man's minimal chakra levels.

 _'Well...If I was found out then I guess there's no point in being invisible anymore.'_

The white youkai materialized his form (minus the youkai traits of course), which the captain spotted in the corner of his eye.

"A kid? An invisible kid...? You...you're one of those ninja fellas right? Wow, I guess they really do train 'em young."

The captain began mumbling to himself, eyes swiveling back to the view of the front of the ship through the window. Naruto had sensed the big man was calmed. Before the little boy could respond, the man spoke up again.

"I hear ninjas can take care of themselves but you're just a kid, you shouldn't stowaway. Think of your mom and pops. They're sure to be missing you."

The man looked about to go on a lighthearted but long-winded scolding so Naruto quickly said:

"They're dead."

 _'Still have dad though...sort of.'_

The captain paused open mouthed before clearing his throat uncomfortably.

"Ah. Er...why do you want to stowaway?"

"I wanna get to the land of demons."

"The land of demons? Oh!"

The big man recognized the name as a country in the west. His gaze seemed to grow a bit searching as a sudden realization occurred to him.

"So you've just been on your own..."

The captain seemed to come to decision.

"...Alright, it just so happens that my destination is the closest someone can get to the land of demons by boat. I'll take you there...but you didn't exactly pay for transportation. Sorry kid, company policy, not that I expect you to know what that means. You could work for it though."

Naruto sensed no deceit from him, and was curious where this was going. Again, the captain didn't wait for a response.

"You'll...er...Ah I got it! You'll be the spotter for stuff closer to the ground. Take this kid."

Without taking his eyes off from the view out the front windows, the captain rummaged through his coat pocket and withdrew with something that looked like a thin headband with a small metal piece attached to it.

"This is a wireless radio, a little something that'll let you talk to me within a certain distance. Go ahead and put it on your little head."

After seeing Naruto put it on, figuring out how to adjust the strap on it, the captain said:

"See that little metal thing? It's the speaker I'll hear you from. Go ahead, try it out now, but not too loud."

Naruto lightly expressed a greeting into the metal piece and was surprised to hear it reverberate throughout the room.

"It's our sound system kid. Anyway, your job is just to stand at the front of the ship and look down at where the ship is heading. If you can see the ground through the water, tell me. I wouldn't want the ship banking into the shallows now."

Just as the captain said this, the kid promptly disappeared from the corner of his eye. Two seconds passed before he could react, but the man spotted a speck in the distance, something suddenly appearing at on the bowsprit of the ship. Using a pair of binoculars, he was able to see that it was the figure of the kid lying on it.

 _'It's like those ninja types are from a whole 'nother world.'_

Suppressing a chuckle, the captain pulled the cord on a public address speaker nearby. Within a moment, the big man's voice was broadcast to the whole ship.

"Attention everybody, we have a new...temp crew member. It's a stowaway...but uh, you all remember the last time we had one right? Same deal here folks. That's all."

Elsewhere on deck, near the front of the ship, a few sailors paused in their work.

"Huh? What does that mean?"

"We're pretty far away from the nearest port. Do people just jump on boats from the sea now?"

One of the more sensible deckhands brought up.

"Whoever it was most likely sneaked on when we were loading up stock a few days ago. They were probably found just recently, so only now cap's making an announcement about it."

That sailor spotted a little boy lying on the bowsprit of the ship with the headset on his head. After pointing him out to the others, another sailor said:

"That must be him all right. Looks a few years younger than our cabin boy."

"What's cap makin' him do?"

"Look's like spotter work."

The oldest of the conversing sailors replied, to which a younger sailor shook his head in disbelief.

"Spotter...cap is just being cap, I guess."

This was met with a round of chortling, with the sailors resuming their work afterwards.

In truth, the captain didn't need Naruto to be a spotter. That specific deckhand position was deemed unneccessary over five years ago with the invention and introduction of sonar technology to ships. In fact, the captain took a glance at his sonar monitor right that second. The captain just skewed with the company rules a bit, to give an excuse for the little boy. Meanwhile, said little kid overheard their discussion, but didn't really understand it.

* * *

For the whole boat ride, Naruto did almost nothing, unknowing that the captain had used the ship's sonar tech to plot an unobstructed course. Hours passed, and when the sun reached it's highest point in the sky, the little boy was disrupted from his leisure when he sensed one of the sailors approach him.

"You're a member of our crew kid! Temporarily, but a member nonetheless! You hafta to come eat with us."

It was then when the white youkai realized that the ship wasn't moving, being moored near the shoals of a beach, and that during this time of day people would usually have lunch. Sensing nothing but friendly intentions, he followed the man belowdeck to some sort of mess hall. A quick sensing revealed that everyone on the entire ship was gathered there, and it was quite rowdy too. Although most of the sailors were grown men, Naruto was able to quickly connect with a sailor who looked similar to the white youkai's age. Named Hishaku, the boy had shoulder-length brown hair, thick eyebrows and light brown eyes.

"Nice to meet you Naruto! The talk of the crew is that you're a ninja right? Are you strong?"

Naruto remembered how he had consumed the Kyuubi and those root ninjas. That should be proof enough right?

"Of course I'm strong! I'm not a ninja though. I wanna be a doctor."

"Eh? Not a ninja? Ok, well I'm gonna be captain one day!"

Naruto blinked. The mention of the captain brought one thing to mind. Just how did the captain sense him originally? Near the end of lunch, Naruto went to ask the burly man for the answer.

"Say captain? How did you sense me? What kind of jutsu is it?"

"Jutsu? Nah, it's not any of your ninja shenanigans, at least I don't think so. It's just that me and the ship have been together so long, she's my baby see? It's like she's a part of me! That's how I gotcha."

Naruto blinked twice, not really understanding. Another sailor, one who didn't hear the whole conversation but only heard the captain's answer, turned and nudged the little boy.

"Kid, just ignore our ol' cap when he get's all crazy like this."

The captain sported a funny looking mock hurt expression, to which the surrounding shipmates exploded into laughter. Naruto grinned. This atmosphere...it wasn't bad.

* * *

Wakkanai. A bustling port town where crowds could be seen walking on the cobblestone streets. It took for the sun to just begin its descent below the horizon for the ship to lay anchor here. Invisibly standing above the roof of the ship's bridge, Naruto silently surveyed the crew of the S.S December as they began unloading wooden boxes of varying sizes across the gangplank. He recalled the captain's words when he had given back the headset:

"Alright kid, good luck out there!"

The burly man's broad grin flashed through Naruto's mind as he tensed to jump, deciding to check out the town first and resume his journey after that. However, the little boy suddenly stopped. His keen hearing picked up voices from a place the white youkai certainly believed he shouldn't be hearing them. Peering over the starboard side of the ship, the side not facing the port and where no sailor was present, Naruto saw three people standing on the water next to the ship, covered by the hull's shadow. The little boy sensed that the weakest chakra was the same level as the root ninjas. Considering that root, therefore anbu, were the elite, that meant these three could be said to be pretty strong.

"Heh. Destroying these ships here in front of this whole town will bring us great infamy. That'll start bringing in the important clients and then we'll start making the big bucks."

The tallest of them said, a man Naruto made out to have natural gray hair and a fierce look on his face. The white youkai sensed him to be the strongest of the three, way stronger than the other two combined. The other two appeared to be twin brothers, both with identical appearances: crimson colored eyes, brown hair. They were even dressed in the same gaudy fashion. Naruto differentiated them with the fact that one of them wore showy earrings and seemed to be the talkative person of the two, while the other was silent. The earring brother spoke up.

"Wait Kajura-senpai, we never made a name to call ourselves yet."

"Eh, let's go with Ishi Terrorists for now."

Came the grey haired man's response.

"Sounds good."

The talkative brother replied, the other one merely nodding his head. Naruto narrowed his eyes, deciding to delay his tour of the town, to delay his journey. The little boy inferred that these men were about to do bad stuff that most likely negatively affected the captain and the crew he got to meet. He also realized that these three were strong shinobi who he didn't care much of at all. Recalling a previous conversation he had with Yami, the one about consuming powerful ninjas, Naruto began to salivate, his face darkening.

 _'...I'm gonna eat these guys...and increase my power..."_

Meanwhile, Kajura gestured to the ship.

"Twins, you're up."

They nodded and seemingly began preparing a jutsu together. Before they could execute it out, a rugged face appeared over the side of a ship, looking down at them. It was the captain.

"I had a hunch my baby was signaling that something was over here, and she was right! Who are you people?! Walking on water like that...you're ninjas aren't you? What are you doing there?!"

Although originally surprised by his appearance, Kajura quickly grew irritated by the captain's rapid speech.

"I'll dispose of him."

The grey haired man casually threw a kunai straight at the captain's head. A faint wispy blue outline could be seen surrounding the weapon, and it flew at such a speed the captain literally didn't have enough time to dodge it if he wanted to. In that split second, the big man widened his eyes, only staring at the instrument of his death.

 _Clang!_

Just before it could pierce his forehead, the kunai seemingly bounced off the air. Uzugan spinning, making everything slow down, Naruto (while still invisible) had reached out and smacked the piece of metal coated in wind chakra away. The Ishi Terrorists, expecting a quick death, all raised their guards when that didn't happen. They heard a sound of rushing water behind them and spun around. A giant wolf-like beast made of water towered over them, almost double the height of the ship. It swung its hefty forepaw in a sweeping arc and the three shinobi scattered, their attention on the ships replaced by a more immediate threat.

Naruto chose the Suiton: Water Beast for a few reasons. There was plenty of water around to use, plus the beast could use its own huge body as a shield for the ships. Also, one of his father's tips about fighting the other day was to make the first move to hold the advantage. Well Naruto wanted to make the first move but not reveal his position, so the Water Beast Jutsu was suitable. Jutsu like the Futon: Great Breakthrough and Katon: Fire Dragon Bullet kind of gave away the user's relative position, which wasn't what the little boy wanted. Lastly, Naruto kind of wanted to gauge the abilities of the three shinobi, and them fighting a huge distraction would let the boy observe them all he wanted.

"Heya captain, those guys want to destroy every ship in this harbor, and I'm fighting them."

Naruto summed up the situation quite nicely in his opinion. As he was still invisible, the captain seemed to look around a bit, not knowing where the boy's voice came from. Remembering that the little stowaway could turn invisible, and seemingly brushing off his close encounter with death, the captain said aloud.

"I won't let you fight alone kid!"

The big man dashed into the bridge, and almost immediately after his voice could be heard from the loudspeaker to everyone on the ship.

"Crew, stop what you're doing! We're under attack! Get the crossbows and the harpoons and rush to the starboard side! Hit those three guys you see and no one else! Naruto is already fighting them with his ninja stuff!"

The captain's orders were heard not just by the crew, but by the fighting shinobi below in the water.

"We lost the element of surprise. Anyhow, got any ideas for this thing, Kajura-senpai?"

The twins clearly followed the grey-haired man's lead. When they saw that he wasn't attacking but clearly thinking of something, the two brothers merely continued to dodge. The beast didn't attack at unavoidable speeds for them, anyway. Naruto clicked his tongue in annoyance, seeing that they did nothing but evade. Shortly, Kajura spoke up.

"I remember what kind of technique this is. Attacking that beast is useless, it will just replenish itself out of the water. We have to target the person controlling it, that's the only thing keeping this jutsu active."

"But where could the user be?"

"Can't be too far away. Whoever it is also has to concentrate to use it. I would guess somewhere around the ships. Fire away Etoro, Metoro."

Kajura calmly analyzed.

 _'They're practically guessing where I could be...So they're probably not sensors then...'_

Naruto concluded as he invisibly stood on the roof of the bridge. The little boy also saw how the man's eyes flickered to each brother as he said their names. Etoro was the talkative one, while Metoro was the silent one. Etoro laughed and leaped to his brother's side.

"Finally! Ready our combo attack brother! Yoton: Expanding Flame Rings!"

As his brother ran through several handsigns, Metoro then spoke up for the first time in a rather taciturn voice, making handsigns of his own.

"...Koton: Steel projectile."

 _'Kekkei genkai?'_

Naruto thought, remembering that Koton and Yoton were not of the five standard nature transformations. Yami had told him all about blood limits, how they could not be copied or taught to others. The root ninjas he had consumed thus far may have had hiden, secret techniques not taught to outsiders, but no blood limits.

 _'If I eat them, will I get it?'_

The very thought made the boy's invisible spiraled eyes shine with animistic hunger, and a thirst for power. The boy carefully observed what the twins did next. A quickly expanding ring of flames appeared from Etoro's hands while Metoro launched forth a large ball of steel the size of a man. The steel ball seemed to absorb the flames as it sped towards the harbor, gaining a magma-like appearance. Whatever it was, Naruto supposed it wasn't good. The boy promptly willed a Suiton: Water Colliding Wave, a giant wave of water bursting forth at the same height of the water beast, heading straight for the glowing hot steel bullet. Naruto knew the wave would block the harbor (therefore the boy himself) from the sight of the three shinobi. He could now use a Futon: Great Breakthrough without giving away his position. At the same time the wave appeared, the white youkai expelled an extremely wide swath of wind, propelling the wave ever faster.

 _'Lava...that sounds awfully like fire and earth mixed together...'_

Naruto suddenly thought as he finished his wind jutsu. From his understanding of the elements, water beat fire, and lightning beat earth.

"Raiton: Thunderbolt."

The little boy whispered, discharging two thick streams of lightning from his palms, hitting the wave and conducting through it. Naruto wasn't too sure what elemental natures could make up steel, but he was open to see the result of the collision. Hopefully the wave would beat back the twins' attack and push the three shinobi at his water beast, which would smash 'em.

Almost a millisecond before contact, the glowing hot ball of steel released a high pressured shockwave and exploded in a huge firestorm, violently churning the river's surface. It completely blasted Naruto's augmented water wave back, most of the wave evaporating in a huge cloud of steam. The resulting storm engulfed an area Naruto estimated to be almost half the harbor, except it appeared his wave was able to push it just enough so that it barely did not touch a single ship. By now, the entire crew of the S.S. December had rushed to the starboard side, brandishing whaling harpoons and crossbows. They tensely watched in awe as the firestorm had erupted.

 _'Wow...That's big.'_

Naruto thought, watching as the huge mass of flames began to die out. After it did, the little boy grinned.

 _'Got 'em.'_

When Naruto had originally fired off his lightning jutsu, he aimed straight at where he had sensed the twins. He didn't let that up, even when his water wave was repelled. As the smoke cleared, the white youkai saw that his aim was true. The twins' sizzled and blackened bodies could be seen slowly sinking into the depths. The white youkai, who was still shocking them, finally stopped and lowered his arms. That particular Naruto was actually a shadow clone. He still felt the need to bait Kajura, since the grey-haired man hadn't used any of his abilities yet. The invisible dark clone Naruto had sunk beneath the water and was swimming his way to the twitching bodies, temporarily changing back to the darkness he was made of, consuming the twins whole.

Immediately, the dark clone blinked. There were no rush of random, disjointed images this time. He felt as if he experienced the twin's entire lives almost instantly. How they had grown up in the village hidden in a mountainous valley, Ishigakure.

 _'I guess only two young guys are nothing compared to a fox who has lived for eons and the lifetimes of seventy four root ninjas...Maybe I can handle more.'_

The little boy didn't even have a headache. More importantly, Naruto now knew the identity of the last shinobi, Kajura. Possessing the Magnet Release kekkei genkai, the grey haired man was a famed jonin of Ishigakure and known by the moniker 'Lightning God Self'. He became a missing-nin recently, along with two fellow Ishigakure jonin, the twin brothers Etoro and Metoro Konjiki. Naruto couldn't wait to devour him, especially when he saw Kajura's most powerful jutsu from the twins' memories, the one he was named for.

Meanwhile, Kajura wasn't too happy. Almost immediately after the twins' signature combo attack had detonated, two jet streams of lightning had streaked out of the flames and hit the brothers before they could react, electrocuting them and causing their bodies to smoke up. Their eyes rolled back as they collapsed, but the lightning continued to shock them. Marking them as done for, Kajura's thoughts raced. Who was targeting them? Bounty hunters? But the three of them weren't missing-nin long enough to earn a price for their heads. This wasn't Kirigakure, Ishigakure had no such thing as an anbu faction that targeted traitors from its own village. Then what? Did a couple of 'good samaritans' overhear what they were planning and decided to stop them? Whatever the case, the experienced Ishi jonin determined the enemy to be four ninjas at the very least. One for the water beast behind him, one for the wave, one for the lightning jutsu. He also caught the unnatural speed of the wave and correctly guessed it was enhanced by a wind jutsu of some sort, so that made four. Oh, and judging how the twins were hit despite the flames covering vision of the other side, the enemy had a sensor among them too.

Which is why when the smoke cleared, Kajura was extremely surprised to see the small figure of Naruto's shadow clone release its lightning jutsu.

"What the fuck! It's just a brat!"

The Ishi jonin didn't have long to express his incredulity as the crew launched a volley of everything they had. Behind them, the port's alarm bells tolled loudly, and the town militia could be seen assembling. One of the crew members had been dispatched early on to warn the town of Wakkanai, plus the explosion hadn't exactly gone unnoticed. However, the nukenin didn't even put them in his eyes, uncaring of those in 'civilian' level. Casually evading the slew of arrows and metal harpoons, including a swipe from the back from the water beast, the grey haired man grew incensed. He didn't believe that the brat was alone.

 _'The other three or more must be hiding somewhere. No matter, I'll drive them out.'_

"Playtime is over. Kid, you and the rest of your hiding friends are dead! Jiton: Lightning God Self!"

Flecks of iron began peeling away from the hulls of all the ships at the harbor, gathering themselves around Kajura. His body's scalar size quickly increased, 'till it appeared that the nukenin hit his limit. Still, in the end the metal giant was a full head taller than the already huge water beast. Seeing the giant also be coated with lightning chakra, Naruto could see where it got its name. Within the vicinity of the shadow clone, most of the crew gaped as they stood on the ship's deck, some dropping their weapons in fear.

The water beast tried firing a powerful torrent of water at the enlarged Kajura, but it was of no use, there was no visible effect and the metal giant didn't even budge. Swatting the water beast away with one hand, the nukenin laughed and started making his way towards the docked partially deconstructed ships. The giant human form didn't exactly move fast though, and Naruto supposed that the technique required quite a bit of concentration to move that whole huge mass of iron.

"There's nothing you can do in the face of my ultimate defense!"

Naruto wondered about that. The little boy doubted it could hold against a sage rasenshuriken or even his bijuudama, but both of those moves would completely obliterate the whole section of the river, the ships and Wakkanai port included. Then he came to a sudden realization:

 _'Why do I have to blow the metal off him? I have other moves.'_

Naruto remembered that he had other jutsu that could beat the nukenin without actually having to touch him at all. Jutsu like the Mind Body Switch. The shadow clone raised both hands at the giant metal man, connecting his thumb, index and middle fingers, leaving a circle inbetween. He adjusted his aim a bit to line up with where he sensed where Kajura really was under all that metal.

 _'Shintenshin no Jutsu.'_

To the crews of the docked ships and the townsfolk, it was as if the metal giant crumbled to pieces before them, sinking below the water's surface. At the same time on the roof of the bridge away from sight, the shadow clone fell backwards in a dead heap, yet still active. Naruto controlled Kajura's body to sink beneath the surface, the greyhaired man screaming incoherently in his own mind. The little boy was well aware of the drawback to the Mind Transfer Jutsu; the whole thing about how the victim with a strong enough will could overpower the user. To that end, while in Kajura's body the boy simply applied a genjutsu...on himself. It was basically the full repeat of the white youkai's spontaneous combustion sessions with the Kyuubi. Naruto was kind of immune to that sort of thing by now, but Kajura certainly wasn't. The nukenin could only mentally scream as he felt the vivid sensation of being burned alive. When the shadow clone retracted its mind presence, it was when it felt the other Naruto in darkness form begin to consume the greyhaired man. Kajura lied listlessly underwater, unheeding of his body's natural reaction to drowning nor of the enveloping darkness.

* * *

"I don't really understand what happened at the end there...but you beat 'em right?"

The captain said while his right hand rested on a tenuous looking railing of his ship, half of it missing from being used in the Magnet Release jutsu.

"Yeah. Sorry about the boat though."

The invisible boy replied while surveying the other missing parts of the ship. Thankfully, none of the docked ships were any danger of leaking.

"It may be wrecked a bit, but lives are more important. Besides, you saved us kid. I wish I could take you out further west, but ships can't run on land. You look like you're able to take care of yourself the rest of the way anyway. All I can say is, if you ever need a favor and we meet again, name it."

The boy internally resolved to remember this.

"See ya captain."

"May we meet again Naruto! Good luck out there!"

The captain loudly called, getting the feeling that Naruto wasn't on board anymore. Indeed, in that short moment the white youkai had already reached the other side of the Crosscut River. The white youkai smiled as he chased after the setting sun.

* * *

 **This was originally the second part to the previous chap, 'cause it happened on the same day, but I decided to have it stand alone.**

 **Etoro and the other two are from Gaara Hiden. I remembered reading it, and about them? They were supposed to be from Ishigakure, and since Naruto was passing through there on the way to the Land of Demons, I thought, why not? Granted that the events of Canon Gaara Hiden occur about 10 years after this, I made the Ishi Terrorists a fledgling organization with only those three instead of the larger crime syndicate it was inferred to be in Gaara Hiden.**

 **Fuyuriku: Thanks for pointing those out.  
**

 **Review/Fav/Follow pls :/ (Or all three)**


	11. The Skies Await

That night, Naruto (the original) stood alone in the middle of an empty field that he mapped out to be twenty kilometers from the nearest human settlement. The little boy held a rubber kunai with a completely dull edge in his hand. A certain technique formula of the phrase 'a ninja's love of the blade' was written on the toy's wrapping covered handle. Naruto had followed his father's exact instructions to the highest precision in order create that inscription, that plus many other hidden details that his father had said was necessary beforehand. Considering that Minato had said that it was his signature and strongest jutsu, Naruto wasn't too surprised. The little boy grinned in anticipation. Him being here and doing this meant that his father was ready to teach it to him. Ready...to teach him the Hiraishin.

"Wow, it actually takes quite a lot of effort to turn this scrap of words into a teleport destination, eh dad? So those weird three-ponged kunai really had nothing to do with it?"

Naruto said. It was quite the painstaking ordeal, as when Minato had felt Naruto was off in even the slightest mark, he had his son do the whole process over again. There was a whole discarded pile of small wrap cloths to show for the boy's setbacks, each covered with 'failed' Hiraishin markers. Throughout that time, Naruto did use Yamanaka ninjutsu to receive memories of his father silently working on the formula. As evidenced by the pile of failed marks, Naruto still wasn't able to instantly replicate the jutsu. It was then that the white youkai realized a fundamental difference between the memories he got from devouring people and the ones he got from the Psycho Mind Transmission jutsu. It was hard to explain, but when Naruto had run through the root memories for the jutsu stuff, it had felt like those experiences were his own, that he had performed the techniques himself. With the Psycho Mind Transmission there was an unidentifiable distance, but Naruto just knew it was there. The white youkai imagined that if he devoured his father...

...No. He would never do that.

 _...Thump...Thump..._

Naruto stared firmly at the toy kunai, his hand clenched tightly around the handle. The boy decided he valued his father's _presence_ far more than his ability. In the mindscape, Yami stayed silent. The dark youkai had thought of this far earlier, but didn't bring it up to Naruto precisely because Yami instinctively knew that the white youkai would react the way that he did. Minato, who could feel this train of thought due to being in Naruto's mind, inwardly shrugged. The yellow flash didn't really think of himself as 'real'. As far as he was concerned, the real Minato died with his soul sealed inside the Shinigami's stomach. The blond man thought himself a reflection, an echo at best. Also, to begin with, he had already resolved to fading to nothingness in order to restore Naruto's Eight Trigrams Seal, which he wouldn't do now as it would serve no purpose.

 _'I wouldn't really mind too much...but if Naruto won't do so...I guess I'll continue teaching him the Hiraishin then.'_

"Son, half of these initial preparations were also to make the mark irremovable. And no, those kunai were just weapons I felt most suited me, their weight felt just right in my hand. For the Hiraishin all that matters is the formula."

Minato explained, to which he proceeded to bring up his fight with the masked man as an example. Specifically, it was the instant he placed his teleport formula on the man's body.

"My fighting style is to strike, strike, strike, and keep on striking in a burst of speed, overwhelming my enemies before they could react. For the more difficult opponents such as the masked man, I try to place my mark upon them to do this. Naturally, it would be quite unfortunate if they were to somehow get rid of my mark right?"

Naruto experimentally tried scratching away at the inscription. Nothing happened. The little boy looked at his fingers to see no traces of black coloring on them.

"Yeah...the ink really won't come off..."

It was then when the dark youkai noticed that a bit of the wrapping had been scuffed off.

 **"But if the surface is damaged to the point where the mark is rendered unrecognizable..."**

Minato could see what Yami is getting at, and conceded the point.

"Yes, the formula must be intact for the Hiraishin to work. What you suggest is one way to stop it."

Naruto blinked, slowly catching on.

"I get it...so if I rip this cloth to pieces...oh alright."

The white youkai suddenly came to a realization as he remembered how quickly his father had placed his mark on the masked man.

"Hey wait a second, how did you slap the formula on him so fast? Before when you showed me memories of how it was created, you took much longer to do it then."

Minato seemed to take a second to gather his thoughts.

"...Over time with much repetition, my familiarity with the technique was such that I was able to complete all those steps to place the mark in less than a second. There's also another important point I must mention. I'm well aware that I appear to use the teleporting aspect of the Hiraishin without so much as giving it a thought but in reality, it required extensive concentration. Teleportation is not something to be done recklessly, mindlessly. For the inexperienced user, one must carefully calculate their destination. I just mastered it to a point where I do not have to consciously focus, by performing all the computations subconsciously."

 **'That must not be easy...'**

Yami privately thought. The dark youkai wasn't too surprised, however; from the root ninjas memories, Yami knew all about his father's longstanding reputation as a genius. Meanwhile, Naruto just scratched the back of his head, slightly puzzled. It all sounded really complicated to him.

"...uh, could you explain more of what you mean dad?"

Minato smiled patiently.

"Although in theory, with this jutsu there is no attack you cannot avoid, but it does have its fair share of flaws to overcome, particularly when someone is learning how to use it. For instance, why do you think I wanted you to use a rubber kunai instead of a real one?"

Originally, Naruto had pulled out a real kunai, but his father had instead insisted using a toy kunai if Naruto could find one in his storage seals.

"No idea."

The little boy honestly replied. Meanwhile, Yami was beginning to grasp the idea, based on what his father had said about teleportation being something requiring much concentration. He said nothing though.

"That night, is there anything you've noticed in those several times when you saw me use the Hiraishin? Afterwards, I mean?"

The blond man said, his face rather easygoing. Minato didn't want to just merely say the answer; he wanted his son to figure it out himself. Naruto carefully thought back, and slowly came to a conclusion. There were several factors that stayed constant like the yellow flash his father gave off, but one thing was almost always different: His position relative to the Hiraishin kunai. In his final clash with the masked man, Minato had flashed to a space above the kunai before smashing his rasengan downwards with one hand and catching the metal weapon with the other. When his father had flashed his mother and the baby him to the safe house, Naruto spotted another Hiraishin kunai hung on a string high above on a wall. This time, his father had flashed relatively below the kunai. After going through a few more examples did the white youkai make the connection.

"You don't just teleport to them, it's anywhere within a certain 'range' of the mark. The specific location is what you calculate."

Minato nodded contently, pleased by his son's answer.

"Correct. To those not familiar with the technique, they would most likely be randomly teleported somewhere within that range, which could be quite dangerous. Although stage one in learning this jutsu is trying to teleport to a unmoving marker somewhere away from you, stage two is teleporting to a moving marker-"

"-So like getting used to safe house teleporting and then the way you did it to smash the masked guy?"

Naruto summarized thoughtfully. Minato nodded before continuing:

"Yes, but keep in mind there is quite a difficulty jump between the two stages; the difference in concentration needed...you'll understand once you go through both of them. Anyway, the danger comes from situations in stage two such as teleporting in front of the thrown kunai, you know what I mean? Staying in a big open field such as this would greatly minimized that risk."

The blond man made a motion as if he was stabbed in the back, emphasizing his point.

"Going back to the difference between the two stages, even if you master the first one there is a high likelihood of making the same mistakes in the second portion. For stage two I recommend tossing the toy up lightly, and time your teleportation when it reaches its apex height. At such a position the rubber kunai wouldn't have much of a velocity at all, making it easy for you to grab it or evade it if something goes wrong."

Still, Naruto thought that using a real kunai instead wouldn't make much of a difference given his durability, but was touched nonetheless.

"Is there any stages after these two?"

The little boy asked.

"There is one more. Ah, I believe I forgot to say that steps one and two operate under the notion that you stay still. Step three is simply to teleport to a moving mark while you are moving as well. It may sound very similar to step two, but trust me, step three adds a whole new dimension in terms of difficulty. For example, in step two you must train to teleport under specific calculations regardless of what direction you have thrown the mark and the speed. In step three you must now account for your own motion...the amount of situations to train for multiplies by quite a lot."

Minato replied. Naruto felt a black sweat-drop on his forehead.

"Sounds hard."

"It is a S-rank jutsu, one full grade above the A-ranked Rasengan."

Minato immediately noticed how unencouraging that sounded and quickly added.

"If you master step three, then you've mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique in its entirety. Then we can start working on some of the derived jutsu from this technique."

At this, Naruto's spiraled eyes lit up in remembrance.

"Ooh Ooh! Like when you magicked an entire Bijuudama away?!"

"I call that the Hiraishin: Guiding Thunder. But yes, I'll teach you that too."

The yellow flash responded with a smile, before seemingly thinking of something else.

"Before you begin, there's also another very important facet to this technique: Its manipulation of the time-space continuum. Something I'm positive you haven't noticed."

 **"What do** you mean?"

Both youkai simultaneously said, confused.

"Time distortion with a similar mechanic as your Uzugan. Let me show you."

Through the Mind Body Transmission jutsu, Minato transmitted one particular memory to his sons. Looking through their father's eyes, both youkai saw an entire squad of shinobi, all of them holding varying emotions on their faces ranging from fear to outright hatred. Judging from their headbands, they were from Iwagakure. The squad stood in a semicircular formation, and Naruto could hear voices within close proximity from behind. His father was most likely surrounded in this scenario. Distant explosions and other loud noises could be heard, and Naruto instinctively recognized the scene to be of a battlefield reminiscent of the ones in the root memories. One of the Iwa shinobi in front snarled aggressively, brandishing a large broadsword.

"There's nowhere to run, cursed yellow flash! With your death, we'll avenge all our fallen comrades."

Memory Minato didn't move, only keeping a wary eye on his enemies. Another taller Iwa ninja leered at him.

"That's not all either! We know the Konoha medic camp is nearby! After you're dead, we'll send ever last one of your wounded along with ya!"

At that, the blond man's gaze hardened and his arm swung up in a blur, throwing a kunai into the air at a near invisible speed. Less than a tenth a second later, he disappeared in his trademark yellow flash. In the same instant Naruto got an overhead view, about thirty meters high, of the whole circle comprised of Iwa shinobi. However, it was completely frozen, with nothing moving at all. Even their facial expressions stayed the same. That in itself didn't make much sense though. Unlike the memories of those Naruto had eaten, memories from the transmission jutsu couldn't be 'paused'. They could be replayed over and over, but not stopped. It was Yami who immediately got it, after digesting his father's words just before.

 **"Would I be incorrect to say that the instant after teleporting, there is a window of time where everything is slowed to the point where it appears time itself has stopped?"**

"No, you wouldn't be incorrect. You're completely right."

The blond man then canceled the memory and met Naruto's spiraled eyes in the mindscape.

"I would also like to add that you may have teleported along with me in the memory of that night...but this is something only the user will experience, not any passengers."

"...err, do you know how much it slows everything down?"

Naruto curiously asked. His Uzugan eyes could slow things down for him, but not to this great of an extent as to make everything appear frozen. The small boy wondered if he could somehow train his eyes to eventually be capable of that, or possibly surpass it. His father tentatively waved a hand.

"I would say it feels like a number of seconds have passed, yet in reality it was a short interval of time less than a nanosecond."

Yami's spiraled eyes widened, greatly impressed.

 **"That's crazy! A nanosecond is like...a billionth of a second!"**

Minato nodded, his chest slightly swelling in pride.

"Actually, the original version of the technique created by the second hokage didn't have this ability. I mastered that version so I know. The time distortion is exclusive to _my_ Hiraishin alone."

The blond man seemed to refocus then, his eyes sharpening. Both youkai knew Minato was about to say something important.

"The effect is extremely useful. For skilled ninjas, a few seconds is all that is need to gauge a battlefield. And not only that, this effect is what allowed me to resolve massively outnumbered fights in seconds..."

 **"H** ow?"

Both youkai asked. Minato smiled lightly in response.

"I don't think it's too complicated, you can figure it out. To start off, what could slowing everything down also mean?"

It didn't take Naruto long to answer, 'cause it was sort of obvious to him.

"You're speeding up your reflexes."

Yami was quickly assembling the puzzle pieces together. There was just one last question on the dark youkai's mind.

 **"Every time you teleport, does the interval of time deceleration reset?"**

"Yes."

Minato replied simply. Naruto thought back to the one night Yami had told him all he knew about their father (Before they met him for real). One thing stuck out.

"I remember it was said that after you threw your special kunai at an enemy, there would be a yellow flash and they would die. Do you wait until the kunai is close enough so that they're in teleport range, flash to 'em and stab 'em while they literally can't react? And if there's more than one, due to your hyper-fast senses, do you 'hop' to each one and beat 'em all in what seems like an instant?"

Yami nodded along, having come to the same conclusion.

"See? You did figure it out. Here's an example you can watch, which hopefully would clear up any specifics."

Minato said, before transmitting the continuation to the previous memory. As the time distortion began wearing off and the blond man began feeling the sensation of falling once more, he quickly threw down a Hiraishin kunai, keeping another in other his hand, before weaving several one-handed handsigns in an eye-blurring speed.

"Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

One gleaming metal weapon instantly became a thousand. By now, the Iwa-nin had spotted Minato's falling form, some beginning to prep some jutsu of their own while others jumped to avoid the avalanche of kunai. It would prove fruitless. Minato flashed to the highest kunai and took stock of the situation as everything froze. The blond man picked out each and every Iwa shinobi not in a direct path of getting peppered to death. Each of those lucky few had kunai falling very close to their bodies, which meant they were well within teleport range. Minato flashed to one of them, his new suspended position in front of a well-built male Iwa ninja with a rugged face. The blond man's rooted arm grasped his special kunai, which was lodged in the Iwa man's throat. There was no burst of blood, Naruto guessing that there wasn't enough time for that.

Yami whistled at the sight, thinking privately:

 **'Wow. That guy doesn't even know that he's dead yet...this is definitely how father was said to have slain over a thousand shinobi in mere moments...'**

"As you can see, in the time distortion the only useful jutsu available is the Hiraishin. Only your reflexes are enhanced, not your movement speed. Taijutsu? You can't move. A nanosecond is too short of time for genjutsu or ninjutsu to take effect. The only real option is instantaneous transportation."

Minato commented as his memory self dispatched every other Iwa ninja not in danger of being killed by his Shuriken Shadow Clone technique with the same immediate fashion. His memory self teleported back to the highest kunai in the air, and simply waited for the distortion to wear off. It was if someone resumed a paused movie. Most of the Iwa ninja turned into pincushions after being hailed by the mass of Hiraishin kunai. For the lucky few who were in a position to dodge them all, there was a flash of yellow before them and a river of red suddenly sprouted from their necks. To the outside observer, the conflict ended in a blink of an eye.

All the while, the blond man carefully gauged Naruto's reaction. He knew his son must have seen a lot of death, whether from the memories of the root ninjas or from the Kyuubi, and here he saw that Naruto didn't show any squeamish or uncomfortable reaction. It was something Minato wasn't sure of being a bad thing or not given his son's young age. In contrast, the white youkai sported an excited grin.

"I can't wait to get started."

* * *

Sunday.

It was raining again. Yet, unlike the other days Naruto observed it to be much, much lighter. Stretching his vision to the sky, beyond human limits, the small boy could see the rain clouds all very slowly heading east, and not unnaturally swirling about at one point like the other days.

Naruto found himself led away by Aikoku. As he left, the little boy waved back at the class of Ame orphans, and got some confused waves in return.

"Where's sensei taking him?"

"Who knows?"

One of Aikoku's water clones, overseeing them all, put an end to their chatter with a shout like an angry drill sergeant.

"Silence! Back to your training!"

Meanwhile, the white youkai continued following the rain shinobi.

 _'We probably aren't going anywhere far...'_

To his knowledge, the range of the Mizu Bunshin was limited, leaving water clones unable to exist very far from the original. This was proven to be incorrect once Naruto realized they had walked pretty far, stepping from the emptier districts to the streets with loads of people walking around in the standard raincoat or holding an umbrella. Unlike last time where Aikoku had navigated uncaringly through the throngs of people, now he led Naruto through deserted pathways devoid of people like the alleys. However, Naruto spotted that they were constantly getting closer to a huge tower that stood above the rest, and recognized the path they were taking as the one leading to God's Tower. His doubts cleared as he remembered that yesterday his uncle mentioned something about Sunday visits, after the orange-haired man had cut their first meeting short.

* * *

 _Saturday, the previous day  
_

"You came here as a part of a group Naruto. It wouldn't be nice to keep them waiting..."

Pain said after some time had passed. As soon as he mentioned it, Naruto noticed with his senses that every detectable chakra signature within the tower besides him and his newfound relatives had congregated at the base of the tower. Still, the white youkai held an unwilling childish expression. The previous excited feelings over the prospect of new family hadn't worn off, but Naruto didn't like the idea of people waiting on him. The orange-haired man saw the boy's reluctant face and roughly determined what he was thinking.

"It's alright Naruto. You can come over every Sunday."

* * *

Naruto also figured that his sensei must be pretty skilled with the water clone technique if his range with it could cover such a long distance, considering God's Tower resided in the heart of Ame while the rain orphanage Naruto lived at was closer to the city's edge. The little boy's further thoughts were interrupted when Aikoku suddenly spoke.

"Naruto, today you will be meeting with...our god. Treat him with utmost respect."

The rain shinobi still wasn't sure if there was a possible connection between his newest charge and Pain, so he settled with a warning.

"Sure I'll respect Oji-san."

Naruto replied easily. Aikoku stopped in his tracks, slowly turning around to face the little boy.

"You will address him as Pain-sama."

Aikoku said in a stern tone of voice. The white youkai frowned.

"Well, if you say so sensei...but he seemed cool with it..."

The little boy quietly muttered the last part, but the rain shinobi caught it.

"You've met him?"

Naruto blinked.

"Yeah, like yesterday when we all went to the tower."

Almost immediately, the white youkai was put on guard.

 _'Should I not have revealed that?'_

Meanwhile, the rain shinobi was trying to solve the puzzle concerning his newest student and his god. He thought about what he knew of his leader and...what he didn't know about him. Truly, the god of Ame was a figure of immense power and completely shrouded in mystery; anyone could tell that 'Pain' was an alias. No one knew anything about his personal and family life. Yet, with all the secrecy, no one could deny all Pain had done and continued to do for the hidden rain. It was a main reason why everyone, even him, beheld Pain as a god. In any case, the only explanation the rebreather wearing shinobi could think of was a some sort of familial relation. Perhaps Pain really was Naruto's oji-san, his uncle. Out of curiosity yesterday Aikoku had checked out his orphanage file to see if he could find out more about the boy. However, the only pertinent piece of information was his surname, Uzumaki.

 _'...Hey wait...Uzumaki...why does that sound familiar?'_

The information was slowly coming back to him now. The rebreather wearing man suddenly thought of an island off in the far east. It was once called...Uzushiogakure, the former home of the now extinct clan of sealers named-

Aikoku froze mid thought. One of the big rumors concerning Pain's identity was that he came from Fuma clan lineage, but now the rebreather-masked man thought the god of Ame to possibly be...an Uzumaki.

 _'It's just a guess...but it is not my place to confirm...nor is it my place to know...'_

Aikoku rationalized. He only thought himself as one of the many defenders of rain, below Pain-sama's protection. With this in mind, he ran through several handsigns, taking care to hide his arms under his rain-cloak as he did so. It was one of the neat little tricks he did to obscure his next jutsu from the enemy, which worked out quite well in battle, resulting in him obsessively doing it all the time. The only exception was when he was teaching jutsu to the brats.

 _'Genjutsu: Purotekuto.'_

As far as he was concerned, such information was valuable even if turned to out be incorrect. Thus, he decided to keep it to himself and never reveal it, classifying it as an important Rain secret. A genjutsu mental block would ensure that specific piece of information would never voluntarily leave him, even if he was exposed to the most excruciating tortures or truth serums. The rain shinobi glanced down at his young charge, who looked somewhat apprehensive.

"If Pain-sama has allowed it, then never mind."

The rain shinobi turned right back and stayed silent for the rest of the journey. Meanwhile, Naruto was slightly confused.

 _'...Hey Yami!'_

 **"...Yeah?"  
**

After a second, the dark youkai responded, bringing himself in close proximity mentally to the dark clone.

 _'Did I just sense...?'_

Yami thought about it for a moment before saying:

 **"Judging from the buildup of chakra in his body, he cast a genjutsu...and judging on the flow of chakra, he used it on himself."**

 _'That's what I thought!...but why would he do that?'  
_

The dark youkai shrugged.

 **"I don't know. It ain't one I recognize; of all the genjutsu the root know, there isn't a single one that could prove advantageous for the user if they used it on themselves."**

 _'...I'll ask him to teach me it later.'_

Naruto's eyes shined with yearning over this unknown jutsu.

* * *

For Naruto, following Aikoku up the tower was sort of similar to how he had followed aunt Konan the previous day. Like her, the rebreather-masked shinobi avoided all of the rooms on the upper floors. As the little boy matched Aikoku's brisk pace, Naruto could sense uncle Nagato's chakra signature up in the top room, but nothing of the bluenette. Reaching out with his sensory perception, the white youkai could feel her all over the city, sometimes in small shapes and sizes.

 _'Probably has somethin' to do with the paper stuff.'_

Naruto guessed, remembering how she originally appeared before him in a swarm of white sheets. By now, the white youkai and the rebreather shinobi had reached the top floor, standing before the walled off entrance to the room. The little boy watched as Aikoku made the seal of confrontation with one hand and placing the other on the metal surface.

"This is called the Hidden Doorway Technique. But to have met Pain-sama here already, I'd imagine that you've seen this before?"

Aikoku said, casting a glance over his shoulder at Naruto. The boy nodded in response as a large hole stretched itself on the wall.

"I see."

The rain shinobi said as he and Naruto stepped through into the next room. The lights weren't on, so it was quite dark. The only source of illumination came from the far side of the room's large mouth-like orifice that led to the outside. Extending outward from that opening was a tongue-like precipice, and Naruto could see Pain perched on its edge; the Rain leader sat with his back towards them as he gazed over Ame with a watchful eye. There was some sort of unapproachable air about the orange-haired man, and almost immediately after Aikoku had stepped into the dark room, the rebreather shinobi promptly got down on one knee.

"I have brought him, my lord."

The brown-haired man said in the humblest voice Naruto ever heard him say. It was certainly a big contrast to Aikoku's usual sharp demeanor.

"Good."

The rain leader responded, still looking out towards the metal city. The rebreather shinobi said no more and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Naruto blinked as the smoke cleared, but promptly looked back over at Pain's back and ran towards him.

"Good morning uncle!"

At that point it was as if the invisible pressure suddenly lifted. The Rinnegan wielder stood up, turning around just in time to catch the white youkai's flying hug tackle.

"Likewise."

Pain set Naruto down and kept one arm on the boy's shoulder before speaking again.

"Naruto, from now on, you will spend every Sunday with me, and most of that time will be spent on training."

The ginger man spoke with a deep and uncompromising voice, as if it was already set in stone. Yami was slightly surprised.

 **'Is it the family thing? Or more than that?...Either way...why not?'**

 **"If you trust him, I don't see any drawbacks to this...for now..."**

Said the ever paranoid Yami. The sudden development also attracted Minato to that dark clone's mind. Although the blond man hadn't known the rain leader for long, he was positive that Pain had no malignant intentions for his son.

"This appears to be quite the opportunity son. I'm very curious in what...Nagato-san will teach you."

From what the yellow flash could gather, the orange-haired man was the village head for Amegakure. Although Ame was classified as one of the smaller villages not within the top five, it had a history of powerful leaders that were rumored to equal or even surpass the level of the five kage. The previous leader, Hanzo of the Salamander, had singlehandedly annihilated an entire Konoha squadron with ease, christening the three survivors the name of "Sannin." And the leader before Hanzo, the first village head of Rain, was a mysterious man only known in history under the name 'Iga'; he was said to have assassinated _both_ the shodai kazekage and raikage.

Naruto's mind was already made up before either Yami or Minato added their two cents.

"Cool!"

"Then we start now."

Pain replied simply.

 **"...what?"**

A surprised Yami uttered. Immediately, Naruto felt a certain curious weightlessness again, and before he knew it the boy was already almost a hundred of feet above the tower, breaking through the rainclouds in less than a moment. Everything changed from a dull grey to vibrant blue. The boy hung in place in a position as if he was lying on the clouds, which were spread as far as the eye could see in every direction, cast in a golden shade by the sun shining brightly overhead. It truly was a breathtaking scene. The boy had never really thought about it before, but now he realized that there was a sky above the clouds. Minato heard this thought.

"Not only that son. Even if the sky is filled with clouds, the sun still shines overhead."

The blond man smiled, and Naruto took those words to heart.

 _'Yeah...!'_

"This is amazing...What are we going to be doing up here?"

As Naruto said this, he noticed something strange. The boy knew the clouds were moving due to wind, yet he didn't feel any at all. Come to think of it, he couldn't feel the sun's rays on his skin either. The white youkai remembered that he had felt both those things the last time his uncle had flown him. Naruto's further thoughts were interrupted when Pain suddenly let go of the boy's shoulder. Yami nearly freaked out, while Minato's eyes widened in alarm. Both had thought that Pain was using some sort of jutsu that required contact to make Naruto fly. However, when they realized that they weren't falling they calmed down and revised their assessment.

 **"So he...somehow reduces a person's weight? But then we would be blown away by these winds..."**

Yami thought out loud.

 **"And also...he can block stuff...?"**

Naruto curiously pushed both hands together and saw there was less than a centimeter's distance between them.

 _'An invisible barrier?'_

The boy remembered the recent times his father began to educate him further on that branch of ninjutsu.

"I have a feeling that it is an extension of the same ability he used to lift you here; perhaps he controls gravity and repulsion forces?...Whatever the case, it seems to be a condition he can freely give and take away."

Minato postulated, based on when Pain had flown Naruto to the rain orphanage. Meanwhile, said ginger man answered Naruto's question.

"Your sensei had informed me that you possess all five elemental affinities. However, possessing capability and actual proficiency are two different matters entirely. You will master all five under my guidance. My first mastered element was water, thus it will be the first I will teach you."

 **"...Hold on..."**

Yami had caught something in Pain's words.

 **"...is uncle implying that he mastered all five?"**

"...I think he is."

The yellow flash was impressed, considering it was a feat he never was able to do in his lifetime. The number of shinobi said to have done that could be counted on one hand, due to the sheer amount of training involved. Meanwhile, Naruto was intently listening to what more Pain had to say.

"I have something a little special in mind. In my experience with this element I have devised a training method that encompasses all stages of proficiency: something a novice can pursue to the level of a master and beyond, in which case the master and above would train this method to a greater extent. That will be explained shortly."

The ring eyed man willed himself lower in altitude so that half his body was submerged in rainclouds, lowering Naruto as well. Pain then gestured to Naruto, having the boy watch as he channeled some chakra from his hands that promptly flowed into the masses of water vapor.

"For elemental training, the foundation is more important than just learning jutsu of the element. The true key lies in your understanding behind it. Simply channel your chakra through the clouds. Let it leak into the raindrops that fall. Grasp how the moisture condenses to liquid. As your aptitude grows, spread your chakra among more clouds, to more of the rain. Focus on the sensations you feel, and you will eventually harness the power to call upon water from the air. Anywhere in this world, at any time."

The god of Ame waved his hand and a veritable tide of surging waves a mile wide appeared out of thin air above them. Naruto watched as the spiky orange-haired man guided the vast quantity of water to rush around them. When Pain crushed his fist, the giant volume of water immediately dissolved to mist, which bolstered the rainclouds' size.

Both father and sons expressed differing degrees of amazement over the display.

"This...this level of water release rivals what is said of the second hokage...or is superior..."

Minato breathed. Naruto, on the other hand, had a look of surprised admiration. While it is true that Naruto's proficiency was not small, having the skill of water element root ninjas he had eaten, but it was obvious that the difference between their skill and Pain's was like the distance between heaven and earth.

 **'...hehehe...'**

Yami held a look of eager anticipation. At times the dark youkai tended to think about different ways to destroy their enemies, and at the moment Konoha came to mind.

 **'If we got to such a level...hmmmm...would Konoha survive if a couple hundred thousand metric tons of water dropped from the sky?'**

The black-haired boy thought darkly to himself.

"Well, what are you waiting for Naruto?"

Pain's sudden call snapped the the white youkai to attention.

"...Ah, yes uncle!"

* * *

Within the next several hours, Pain watched over Naruto's training with growing curiosity. The boy's progress wasn't really the big eye-opener, no. It was more the fact that Naruto never seemed to exhibit any signs of fatigue despite having pumped out his chakra into the rain-clouds nonstop the whole time.

 _'If his reserves as such a young child are to such an extent now...I wonder what how far he'll reach in five years? Ten years?'_

To the god of Ame, a large amount of chakra from the get go was more important than chakra control. The growth of chakra reserves are limited by the physiological boundaries of a body's chakra pathway network, while chakra control could be improved with enough training. In fact, the training method he had Naruto carrying out now could be considered an extremely advanced exercise for chakra control.

To the boy himself, time had passed tranquilly, and by the end the mass of clouds had naturally blown eastward, giving Naruto full view of the ground below. The metal city of Amegakure looked so tiny from the boy's vantage point, almost like he could cup it with both hands. Pain didn't move them from their current position in the air, merely watching as the rainclouds moved farther away.

"We won't be leaving the village beyond a distance of this radius. Your training for this particular method is over for today."

Pain said in his deep voice, his gaze concentrated at the small figure of Amegakure below. Both spiky-haired boy and man began to descend from the sky at a speed much slower than how they flew up.

"At any rate...now is what most consider to be lunchtime isn't it?"

The god of Ame mused as he floated both of them through the mouth of a face at the top of the tallest tower of Amegakure, into the darkened room. Unlike how they left it, this time Naruto saw someone waiting for them, along with a chair, table-set, and what looked to be a prepared large tank of water with a height to Naruto's lower chest, in which two long metal bars sat at the bottom. The person standing before them was a tall man, about half a foot taller than the spiky-haired Pain. He had a pierced face and was bald, six spiked studs adorning his bare head like a crown, and possessed a very large jaw and a thick neck. Strangely, the bald man seemed to have no ears and was clad in the same black cloak decorated in red clouds Naruto had seen on Pain and Konan. Said garment was unzipped and parted to reveal his shirtless torso and black leggings. Some sort of metal machine was embedded in the center of his bare chest, emitting some sort of heat. Most notably, the bald man had grey ringed eyes, which were focused right at the boy. Just like the other people Naruto met who had the Rinnegan, the boy could sense no emotion from the bald man whatsoever.

"Uh, hello. My name's Naruto! What's yours?"

Although initially unnerved by bald guy's stare, Naruto was quick to energetically rebound. It would be the spiky-haired man beside him who would answer.

"He is also me Naruto. The other man you saw when you first met me is also 'Pain'."

Inside the mindscape, both Minato and Yami blinked.

"Huh...I wonder how that works? Do the eyes or perhaps the strange piercings have something to do with it? From what we've seen, those seem to be the only noteworthy similarities between them."

The yellow flash analyzed; he was curious after this new insight to Pain's abilities. For Yami, the God of Ame's words had cleared a few things up.

 **"This explains how rumors of his appearance are so varied and inconsistent. It also proves the rumor that 'Pain is multiple people' true."**

Meanwhile, Naruto latched more on what his father had said.

 _'Don't they all wear the same black and red cloak too?'_

The white youkai pointed out.

"Well, didn't we see Konan-san wearing one? Those cloaks just seem to be a mark of authority for the higher echelons of Amegakure's leadership."

Minato calmly explained.

 **"...I can understand your inclination to think the Rinnegan eyes has something to do with it. There really is very little known about that dojutsu plus in the Kyuubi's memories of the Sage of Sixth Paths revealed little.** ** **I mean, who knows right?** Perhaps uncle Nagato is doing it through the exalted eye's power. But, what makes you think the piercings have anything to do with it?"**

The dark youkai spoke up.

"I know judging from the...'unique' name Nagato-san holds that he seems to be someone who is obsessed with pain. Still, some of those piercings are placed in quite the...sensitive areas. I can't help but think that maybe they have some other purpose or significance..."

The blond man responded with a thoughtful expression while speaking in a polite tone.

"Just a thought, son."

Minato quickly added. Meanwhile, Naruto noticed from the ginger Pain's face that he seemed to be deliberating something.

"...To clear up any confusion, you may refer to me as Tendo, the man you met before as Ningendo, and him as-"

The newly identified Tendo pointed to the bald man.

"-Shurado."

 **"Deva Path, Human Path and Asura Path?"**

Yami listed, a little bit confused over the choice of names. On the other hand Minato seemed to comprehend something.

"...I have a hunch that Nagato-san is six people."

The blonde man said, and no less than a second later Yami had the same understanding visage.

 **"Yeah, the title was 'Sage of _Six_ Paths' wasn't it."**

It was at this moment Naruto noticed that the metal contraption on Shurado's chest had opened, revealing a steaming bowl of some sort of broth (It was too high for Naruto to see the contents).

"The extent and power of your chakra depends on the state of your body...eat Naruto. This is especially important at this stage when you're young and growing."

The bald man said. His voice was exactly the same deep and powerful voice that Naruto heard from the other two Pains. Shurado reached in himself and grabbed the bowl, setting it on the table. After he had done so, Minato attentively observed as the metal device in the bald Pain's chest disappeared, leaving only bare skin.

 _'Interesting...'_

The yellow flash thought to himself. As Naruto got into a seat, glancing at the revealed grilled fish stew, the spiky-haired ginger man addressed him.

"While you enjoy that...listen as I talk."

Tendo walked over to stand next to the tank of water.

"This is another method for training the water nature transformation, however, the priorities differ a bit from the first. The previous training could be said to focus more on aggregation, this one concentrates on the power of water, of its strength."

The ginger man's grey ringed eyes stared into Naruto's disguised blue orbs, suddenly posing a question to the boy.

"Are you aware of what shape transformation is?"

"Yeah!"

Naruto cheerfully replied. It was one of the ninja-related things Aikoku had told him yesterday in his really long speech, and the white youkai had known about it even before that.

"Then observe..."

The spiky-haired man placed a hand on the water's surface. Through the glass Naruto could see the water convulsing a bit, and one of the metal bars rose from its position at the bottom of the tank before seemingly shrinking...No, not shrinking; the metal rod was being compressed. The white youkai could hear the sounds of metal creaking in the air.

"A shinobi's offensive power is greatly increased when he spatially recomposes his chakra...which is exactly what this exercise is all about..."

Tendo said as he stopped, the smaller and denser rod sinking back to the bottom.

"So in other words...this develops shape transformation as well as the power of water transformation."

Minato stated, a bit taken back. At the same time, Naruto thought he already had extensive skill in spatial transformation, his proof being the Rasenshuriken. A thought struck him immediately.

 _'That's only for wind though...huh...water release Rasenshuriken..I wonder what that would even be like?'_

And that would prove to be just the beginning of the boy's new ideas.

* * *

 _Elsewhere in the same day, at a forest forty miles from any human settlement..._

"I wanna to reach up and touch the sky...again."

Said a small boy standing atop the trees, his face shining with an orange glow from the sunset, a small arm reaching up above. It was a dark clone of course; the real Naruto had spent the entire day playing/training with Karin and Hinata back at the small village of Onanji.

 **"Then jump with all your strength. Breaking through the clouds would be a simple matter."**

Deadpanned a dark voice, which came from one of Yami's own dark clones, the real one being over at Ame.

"You know what I mean. I want sustained flight. I wanna fly."

Naruto's dark clone was entranced with the experience of the two times Pain flew Naruto up through the atmosphere. In short, he thought it was super cool and wanted to do it too. Yami secretly felt the same way, and knew why. It was simple; they were kids, of course flying would sound awesome. And so, the dark youkai endeavored to think of a way.

 **'Let's see...I'll need to do something with no definitive limit in order to constantly fight against gravity's downward pull, hmmm...without definite limit...oh yeah...I do have something like that, don't I?'**

Yami realized as he thought. Meanwhile, Naruto's face lit up in sudden comprehension.

"I got it! I'll use the Rasenshuriken!"

The dark youkai grinned.

 **"Looks like we're on the same page. As a technique that requires no additional chakra to maintain it once formed, it's ideal."**

Both youkai knew what a Rasenshuriken required...well, what a stable one needed. That condition was sage chakra, and while their father had been greatly impressed with their progress, given that it had been less than two days since they started learning sage mode, the yellow flash still had said that it still was too unsafe for them to draw nature chakra on their own for now. Therefore...

 _'Dad! Daaaad!'  
_

Naruto called in his mind. His father arrived no less than a moment later. Over at Ame's end, that Naruto was studiously training with the water tank method. There was nothing the blond man could really do to help; water release wasn't Minato's forte, after all.

"Yes son?"

"Help me make a Rasenshuriken, I'm gonna fly!"

The blond man blinked, not understanding the situation. Upon suddenly feeling alive and in control of Naruto's body however, Minato complied, using sage mode and shadow clone jutsu to have a humming Rasenshuriken in his hand. Switching back to control his own body, the white youkai promptly let go of the shuriken-shaped sphere. Naruto had realized another thing about the Futon: Rasenshuriken. Despite its core literally being a dense sphere of chakra, when Naruto had saw it thrown the technique didn't seem to descend mid-flight. Now, after letting go of it, the boy observed the jutsu hovering in the air, almost unmoving and seemingly unaffected by gravity. Was it an effect of the wind chakra? Whatever the case, Naruto promptly grabbed it again to maintain control. After fiddling around with how the chakra spun, the boy got an idea of what to do.

Taking a giant running leap into high up in the air, the boy flipped his body upside down in a handstand position while keeping both hands on the spinning Rasenshuriken. Spinning the rotation speed ever faster and adding a spice of wind manipulation, Naruto grinned as his view of the ground got farther and farther away. He was doing it, he was flying! Comprehension dawned in Minato's blue eyes.

"Wow...Impressive, son."

The yellow flash's tone was mixed with pride.

"Thanks dad...although _this_ was the original plan."

Naruto said as he flipped back right-side up, placing both feet on the spinning ball, trying to balance on the Rasenshuriken while channeling chakra through his feet to maintain the shape. Having both feet on a ball did feel a bit cumbersome, and so the boy veered dangerously through the air for some time before finally getting a hold of his balance a bit.

"Hmm...having one beneath each foot sounds more convenient. Though with the size of a Rasenshuriken, I suppose they have to be miniature versions."

Minato thoughtfully commented.

 **"Our kicks would still be like a million times deadlier...I can smell the beginnings of a new exclusive fighting style for us..."**

Yami grinned at the prospect, while Naruto beheld the red-yellow hues above him as he continued to ascend higher and higher into the air.

"The skies await!"

* * *

 **An: The obscurity over exactly how the Hiraishin is learned in Canon gave me the opportunity to write the method of mastery however I wanted to. The time distortion thing...well how in the world was the fourth hokage supposed to be able to kill off like a thousand ninjas in like a second? I came up with that to explain that insane feat. Plus the flee on sight thing.  
**

 **Haven't updated in a while due to life issues.**

 **Review/Fav/Follow pls :/ (Or all three)**


	12. A Brief Night

_That night, above the skies..._

 _'...Just...Unbelievable...'_

Minato sighed perplexedly. Indeed, his present situation was completely out of the ordinary. Naruto had the desire to master this new self-invented fighting style of flying with Rasenshurikens underneath each foot. Due to the boy's covert nature however, he decided to practice it in the skies after finding a massive cluster of clouds to hide atop of. Plus, he didn't exactly want to accidentally kick down the forest that was his previous training field.

Although in the previous occasion Naruto had been under Nagato's abstruse invisible force field, now he wasn't. The white youkai currently felt the howling winds, extremely low pressure, and thinness of the air, but he strangely didn't seem to experience any adverse effects.

The fighting style itself was uncharted territory, and Minato didn't really have many meaningful pointers to give to his sons for it. But since the blond man was leagues ahead in terms of taijutsu skill, it was decided using the reverse mind body switch that he would occupy the body of one of Naruto's dark clones currently practicing the new fighting style; to get a feel for it and the possible directions to develop it further. While it is true that the sole of the foot is the most difficult location to gather chakra, the task of maintaining flight didn't prove difficult for the yellow flash, especially since he was watching Naruto the whole time as the boy had tried to get the flying part down that afternoon. Also, besides Minato, Naruto and a bunch of dark clones basically fighting each other, there were several more dark clones who were simply on standby, looking rather bored as they stood there doing nothing but watching on their respective spinning spheres of death.

Nonetheless, their high altitude didn't faze the yellow flash the most; it was the fact that all the Narutos had formed their Rasenshurikens _by themselves._ That meant one thing: Naruto achieved sage mode. The blond man controlled a pair of spiraled blue eyes to sweep across his sons, noting how they all were coated in a shroud of nature chakra, how they tried to manipulate it to extend the reach of their strikes. Minato had been trying to teach Naruto Myobokuzan's sage art taijutsu, and here the whiskered boy decided to incorporate it into his own new Rasenshuriken style as he was learning it. In any case...

 _'...It's only been about two days since he started...'_

Minato thought. It was as impressive as it was astounding. Not to mention the many of frog and humankind who failed, their stone remains kept as a warning, the blond man's master Jiraiya of the Leaf's Sannin had spent years learning sage mode and only ended up able to use it with outside help. Minato himself took about four months, yet had problems keeping the mode active for extended periods of time, an issue that he could see that Naruto didn't have. They had been up in the sky for the past few hours, and neither the white youkai nor his clones faltered in sustaining the orange pigment around their eyes. The yellow flash knew his son was talented, but also speculated in a supplementary reason for Naruto's rapid progression in senjutsu.

He believed it had something to do with the Shodai's genes implanted in his son, back when the boy was still human. It was not an unfounded assumption. In Naruto's body, Minato could feel his time to activate sage mode rapidly grow shorter and shorter every time he used it, from thirty eight seconds down to...less than one. The yellow flash noticed how nature energy just seemed to flock around his son, something that occurred with the Shodai Hokage. He remembered how the brown-haired man also had seemingly gained sage mode instantaneously. Minato could only think: Does the Shodai's genetics naturally possess aptitude in sage mode? At the very least, there seemed to be a correlation between the two.

In sage mode, Naruto discovered that he had an easier time with wood release as well. Elsewhere in the secluded forest below, a veritable army of Naruto sage mode shadow clones were experimenting and trying to replicate the Shodai Hokage's Mokuton jutsu. There were no dark clones there, only shadow clones. It was a matter of convenience; dark clones seemed to have to directly enter the original's body in order to transfer experience, while shadow clones could just pop where they are.

Meanwhile, about several miles higher above the fighting and standby Narutos were several more experimenting with jutsu…of the ridiculously dangerous kind. For example, the Bijuudama, whose blast radius could envelop whole mountain ranges. It was a technique they dearly wished to train due to its destructive capabilities, but those very same qualities made him hesitant to do so. As in, it was way too conspicuous for Naruto's taste. But here, in the sky and above the clouds, he finally had his chance.

Naruto began trying many things. One example was forming a Bijuudama out of his hands. Conversely, on the side he tried firing a Rasengan from his mouth.

Both of those ideas didn't take long to be achieved, and in the process he did figure out how to spin a Bijuudama to increase its destructive potential. However, the crowning breakthrough that night was creating something the youkai named Cyclone Bijuudama: a tailed beast bomb fired off in wave form while covered in wind ninjutsu. The thick beam's velocity would propel with scything winds ever faster, meaning that even should someone dodge it by a hairs breadth, they would be cut to pieces by the wind.

The last thing he would attempt that night didn't come out smoothly. It all started with one thought.

 _"A Rasengan has its blast range vastly increased with the addition of senjutsu and futon chakra...I wonder if the Bijuudama would experience a similar effect under the same thing…"_

With that in mind he began forming one, and once he had the huge black sphere stabilized and spinning, other dark clones began infusing senjutsu and futon chakra. The boy grinned as he saw the tailed beast ball manifest four white spinning blades-

- ** _BOOOOOM-_**

-but then it blew up in his face, literally. Due to Bijuu durability, the experimenting Naruto clones were only _partially_ vaporized. Still active, they were all struck downward at soundbreaking speeds, hitting and burying into the ground in an instant.

Seeing the full extent of the massive explosion almost reach them at their much lower altitude, the fighting Naruto clones and the original himself all instinctively used their arms to cover their faces as they felt a barrage of razor sharp gales assault them, smothering all sound. Those very same storms would go devastate the forest below, instantly popping all the Mokuton training clones.

The buoyancy of the Rasenshurikens barely held them in place, and when their ears where no longer ringing, Naruto lowered his arms to see that he was completely nude. After changing into a (stolen) spare outfit, he noticed that the whole cloud system they hid over was completely dispersed, giving him the view of the ground down below.

 _"I guess I should stop now. My cover is gone…."_

There was a massive spherical indent spanning for miles on the ground, much wider than deep. There were flattened and cut up trees thrown about everywhere, and by stretching his vision Naruto was able to spot several mini craters as well, the other dark clones who had plummeted down lying inside.

After recalling his father back into his mind, absorbing the clones near him and turning invisible, he floated down to the craters, just in time to see those particular clones regenerate all sorts of missing flesh. One of the more skeletal looking ones could only blankly stare as all of his muscles and then skin grew back in a moment.

"Wow…that would've definitely killed me, were I still human…."

After absorbing them, Naruto sighed.

"Haaah….I wonder if there's any place left to test my most dangerous super moves…..if not the sky…where else?"

Racking his brains and memories, Yami didn't take long to find something.

 **"Father, didn't you say the Hiraishin links to some sort of dimensional void for its instantaneous travel? Is it possible to just teleport there?"**

Hearing this, Minato frowned in the mindscape.

"The Hiraishin isn't designed that way, and I've never tried to. There's literally nothing in that dimension, so no air either. I know you two are really resilient, but…"

In the ensuing silence, Naruto caught on and was quick to mindspeak.

 _'I always want to test my limits dad, plus we can just send a dark clone first.'_

Minato blinked, somehow having forgotten that notion.

"Oh….alright. But first I'll need to work out the fuinjutsu kinks…"

On further thought, he added:

"You'll both be watching me as I do so, of course."

The dark youkai grinned.

 **"Ah, right. Watching a master at work…."**

Naruto saw that things seemed to be settled in his mind, and in the real world he began sprinting off, looking around at the now disarray forest as he did so.

 _"Better get outta here, wouldn't want anyone to link this to me…."_

Long after the boy had left, on one of the scattered trunks an outline formed, taking the appearance of a Venus fly-trap clad in a black cloak decorated in red clouds. It opened slightly, and from its shadowy confines were a pair of yellow eyes, one completely died in the color and the other only having a yellow iris. The creature seemed to survey the remains of what was once one of the Land of Fire's lush forests.

"Ooooh, I bet something big and strong did this!"

The plant creature said in a childish and playful voice.

 **"If that wasn't clear already, you insufferable simpleton!"**

A dark voice snapped back, which strangely enough also came from the plant creature. After one second, the childish voice spoke again, seemingly undeterred from the dark one's harsh tone.

"Well, whoever caused this doesn't seem to be here. Let's track them down! They could be one of the Bijuu our Akatsuki are seeking-"

 **"-Our? _Our?"_**

The dark voice cut in with rising vehemence.

 **"There is no connection between us and that organization, save _our_ interest in one of them. I could care less about their goals. _We_ will report this. _They_ will investigate..."**

With that last remark, the creature sank into the wood as if it was water, disappearing as if it had never been there in the first place.

* * *

 **AN: Haven't updated in a while. Sorry about this being so short, but well...exams. Now that's over with and summer starting, I'll probably be able to get back into the groove of things. Also, in this fic Zetsu's the manifestation of the Shinju Tree, and that said tree, Kaguya, and the Juubi are all separate entities. This has something to do with a crossover I have planned. Thus, his motivations are different. That's all I'm gonna say for now.**

 **Review/Fav/Follow pls :/ (Or all three)**


	13. Kinship in Revenge

_Monday. In the small town of Onanji.  
_

On his way out of town to 'play' ninja with his adopted siblings, Naruto slowed to a stop as he heard an elderly man raising a ruckus on his patio, leaning heavily on a cane as he hollered.

"It's a sign from the gods I tell you!"

His yelling had drawn a small semicircle of villagers towards him, and one of the younger men stepped forward.

"What happened, old man Furui?"

"I don't sleep as much as you whippersnappers. I always wake up a few hours before dawn. This time, I saw a big bright light in the sky at the far east and all the clouds there vanished!"

The old man's proclamation was met with a stunned silence, with almost everyone looking at him disbelievingly. The same younger man from before merely said:

"Is this like the time you mistook the messy clothes in your grandson's closet to be a monster? Silly old man, how senile can you be?"

He walked away, and soon the rest of the villagers dispersed to return to their everyday business. The old man gave one last yell in response.

"It's true! It must be an omen of destruction I tell you!"

Naruto chuckled to himself as he began running to the field once more.

 _'Heheheh...that's funny, a youkai mistaken for a god?'_

* * *

 _Meanwhile, in Ame..._

The heavy rain was back in full force that morning. Naruto's small raincloak-clad figure could be seen wading through the deep puddles of Ame's streets, heading towards the city's tallest central tower. Although the boy knew his lessons with his uncle were Sundays, he decided to see him again today anyways, and had left behind a dark clone to take his place at the orphanage.

When Naruto eventually reached the moat and fence of God's Tower, he proceeded to vault over both in a single leap. Amegakure had a heavy shinobi presence in its most populated areas like its central hub, and Naruto's act had attracted the attention of several rain ninja dotting the rooftops, who otherwise had not paid any attention to the boy's trek through the streets. Upon observing Naruto's pale white spiky hair and face, a younger ninja spoke up, appearing to have recognized the boy.

"Hey, isn't that the kid our overzealous senpai brought to the tower yesterday?"

An older shinobi took that statement in before quipping:

"So its one of Aikoku's brats...He got one of the orphan classes didn't he? Meh, no need to leave our posts, that boy probably wants to pay his respects."

The most paranoid of them quickly responded in a distrustful voice.

"He's alone...What if it's one those infiltrators who saw the kid in passing, and chose him as a disguise?"

It was a fair suspicion. The currently conversing rain ninjas all knew of Amegakure's high rate of being infiltrated; it was why a significant percentage of their total forces currently were posted around the city. Many Ame shinobi attributed the problem to their recent victory against Hanzo's faction, with remnants of said faction being the perpetrators.

After a small silence, one of the more rugged looking rain ninja laughed.

"Hahahah...Do you guys remember who personally slayed that old bastard Hanzo-"

"Shhhh! We're not allowed to mention him!"

A few of the other ninja interrupted in unison. The rugged shinobi rolled his eyes.

"Awww shut it you pansies, it's just a name."

Upon looking around and seeing that none were going to cut him off again, he continued.

"You guys remember how it was only a little while ago that Hanzo and a huge chunk of his Ame army were all singlehandedly slain by our god, right?"

At this, the eyes of some of the listening rain ninja had changed, and they turned to look at Amegakure's tallest tower. The rugged rain ninja followed their gazes and chuckled darkly.

"That's right...if that truly is an infiltrator in disguise, then they chose the worst place to go."

However, what none of the Ame shinobi knew at that moment was...that Naruto heard all of what they said, regardless of the lengthy distance between them and the noisiness from the rain. The boy had recently figured out how to apply the chameleon jutsu to only parts of his body. He had his youkai fox ears out and invisible ever since.

Since Naruto heard all of it, so did Yami and his father.

 _'So...this Hanzo dude and his group were uncle's enemies during Ame's civil war right?'_

The white youkai concluded as he stepped through the tower's entrance.

"It appears so..."

Minato responded slowly, still surprised over Nagato's feat, especially since the blond man knew of Hanzo's reputation as an icon of the shinobi world.

 **'I guess this also means the Ame civil war really did end recently...the root info was just a tad bit out of date...'**

Yami thoughtfully mused to himself.

Naruto quickly made his way up the tower, and reached its top way faster than the previous two occasions since this time he didn't stop to explore every floor, nor was he led by anyone. The wall blocking access to the top floor was already opened, so Naruto simply stepped through. He saw the spiky-haired Tendo seated behind a desk on the right side of the room, giving a wry yet expressionless look to a seemingly impassive Konan. However, slight amusement twinkled in her amber eyes as she deposited a five-foot stack of scrolls and paper on the desk.

The pierced man's subsequent sigh and somewhat helpless look elicited a chuckle from the yellow flash, the blond man remembering how tedious and boring he found paperwork to be during his short reign as Hokage.

 _'Aaah paperwork, truly the bane of village leaders everywhere...'_

The bluenette then promptly burst into a mass of papers that flew out the large opening at the far side of the room. Actually, a few stuck around, floating back to attach themselves to the opened wall, which closed up, before flying back out. It was then that Tendo's rippled grey eyes turned to the room's other remaining occupant.

"Now what brings you here, Naruto? Our lessons are every Sunday, not the day after. You should quickly go back before the orphanage notes your absence."

"I wanted to see you anyway! Plus, I've left another me behind, so it's fine!"

"They've started on the clone techniques already...?"

Tendo quietly muttered to himself, which Naruto was able to overhear. The ginger man then straightened and began sorting the huge stack of papers on his desk.

"Ah, well unfortunately, you'll find me quite busy at the moment. But if you're still keen to stay, perhaps we can continue where we left off?"

He pressed a button on his desk and the water tank from Naruto's training rose from underneath the floor. The boy blinked twice at how it appeared, before his own urge for power kicked in, causing him to immediately get started. The white youkai stared hard at one of the metal rods, which was rather bent from his effort the day before. Tendo had given him an accepting nod then; Naruto wondered how the pierced man would react should he progress further today. Although the little boy didn't consider himself attention-seeking by any means, considering what happened to him in Konoha whenever he had caught the attention of the general populace...but as he starting gaining people close to him, that didn't apply anymore. Besides, Nagato wasn't just family, he was now his _master_. Naruto never had one of those before, and for some unknown reason the boy felt compelled to seek the man's acknowledgement.

A few hours then passed in peaceful silence, with Naruto training while gazing at his uncle through the corner of his eyes. Tendo seemed to be observing his progress while simultaneously working through the tall stack of paper beside him with nonchalant ease. Every sheet the man was done with unnaturally floated out the window, something the little boy noticed that Tendo didn't seem to mind; one of Konan's abilities, no doubt.

On Nagato's part, watching Naruto train made him slowly realize how little he knew about his apprentice. Sure they had gone over basic introductions, but there were many things the God of Ame didn't know about the younger Uzumaki, such as:

"Naruto...Do you have any dreams or goals you want to achieve?"

"...I wanna become a doctor!"

Tendo tilted his head, looking briefly contemplative before he gave an approving nod.

"That's...acceptable..."

Nagato felt that Naruto had a way higher potential to be a shinobi, but due to the existence of the medic nin, the man realized the boy could be both. Plus, he remembered how both of his parents had been doctors.

Although Nagato knew medic nin weren't really deep in the front lines, he had at a young age briefly witnessed an exception to that rule by the name of Tsunade. The sight of that fiery blonde pummeling her foes and healing her allies...the god of Ame didn't think it was a bad idea if Naruto could become like that.

The older Uzumaki immediately thought of his own capabilities in that field, but realized he had nothing he could actually teach the boy. The healing abilities he could use were due to his Rinnegan, which Naruto didn't have.

 _'...There are a few Ame medic nin around...something could be arranged later...'_

After having that thought, Tendo focused on something else about his charge. Namely, the way his eyes clouded a bit before he announced his future ambition of a medical career. It was something the pierced man noticed a few times when talking to the little boy; it was like Naruto wasn't mentally present. However, on this occasion the god of Ame was able to catch something in the boy's expression. It was quick, like a flash, but it was a look Nagato was quite familiar with. It was a look he had seen many times reflected off the surface of Ame's lakes at night during his younger years, when he was pondering over his darkest moments: A visage of pure hatred, a sight quite alien on the seemingly happy boy. Recalling what he seen when he had delved a bit into the boy's mind, older Uzumaki had an inkling over how a small boy could produce such a malicious face.

"...But that's not all, is it? You have other darker desires, all stemming from _pain_..."

The white youkai appeared shocked for a second, until he remembered what Yami had shown one of the other Pains. Meanwhile, his uncle continued.

"...I do not wish to pry, but burdens of that nature grow lighter when conferred with others, weakening their hold and blunting their power over you. Then, instead of being _consumed_ by such dark times, you can _use_ them for your benefit instead, possibly empowering yourself in the process. I am your master and above all, family. I'm all ears to anything you share with me."

The Rinnegan wielder discarded the last of his paperwork and clasped his hands together, staring directly into Naruto's face, giving the kid his full attention. In the mindscape, Minato's eyes slightly widened. The blond man had witnessed the white youkai's entire life and knew of all his son's dark dreams, but at this moment realized he had never discussed them with him before. Mind Naruto turned to stare deeply into his father's eyes while the real him told Tendo:

"I have several goals like that, but they're all based on my wish for revenge."

As he said this, Naruto noticed that his father's face held a complicated mixture of emotions, with slight disapproval being one of those he could identify.

"...Is that wrong?"

The boy tentatively said aloud. Tendo chuckled a bit before answering as a matter-of-factly.

"No, revenge certainly should be achieved. If not, it would forever be a burden on your shoulders. Unable to laugh or banish it away, the weight would be something you would ceaselessly carry in your heart, an inconvenient part of your past that would always resurrect at the most inopportune moments..."

The pierced man stared out at the view of the city, his deep voice softening and becoming more thoughtful.

"Yes...fulfill your vengeance, and then live fully..."

Tendo's grey ringed eyes then swiveled back to Naruto.

"So...for whom is this pursuit of revenge for? Yourself...? Or..."

The little boy took a moment to think of everyone he hated. Above all, the masked man and his mocking laughter was the most distinguishable among the chaotic cacophony of different voices and murky faces.

"I want to avenge my parents."

Naruto said in a voice full of conviction.

 _'My own sake can come after that.'_

In the mindscape, Yami shrugged while Minato looked sort of touched while a shade uncomfortable at the conversation taking place. The white youkai looked up to find Tendo's sympathetic smile.

"Ahhh...I too, lost my parents...at an age a little older than you..."

Said smile quickly became cruel and vindictive.

"...I crushed the heads of those responsible like grapes..."

The god of Ame would go on to say more.

"I have a few more debts of blood that have not been fulfilled...Yet...hmmm...I'm making revenge appear more exemplary than it really is..."

It was here that Tendo seemed to come to a sudden realization, and his visage changed from nostalgic to utmost seriousness.

"Don't get the wrong idea Naruto. Some say to pursue vengeance is to bring death to oneself, and they aren't entirely incorrect. However, if you don't let vengeance control you and control it instead, you'll be fine. This idea remains the same with the other darker facets of human nature."

The white youkai nodded in understanding, but Tendo had one last thing to say.

"Yet, the most important thing to remember about revenge is this: Don't let opportunities control your loyalties. If you do, you'll truly succumb to revenge, and be fated with self-destruction."

Naruto didn't really know what to say to that, only making sure to memorize it all. Though, the boy mentally ask his father for his opinion.

 _'So dad, is uncle...right about all that?'_

"I...I'm not too sure. I think so...? I mean, I've had seen people who weren't satisfied when they obtained their revenge, only hurting and suffering more...but on a personal level, Nagato-san's words resonate with me a lot."

Minato replied with an unsure expression.

 **"What do you mean?"**

Yami was immediately interested. Did this mean that their goody-two shoes father had once sought revenge?

"In my first year as a genin, both my team-mates were killed by an Iwa jonin, who I subsequently somehow killed in retribution."

As he said this, the blond man recalled something else, which he shared with his sons.

"Come to think of it, Jiraiya-sensei never really...trained us as a genin team. It was only after that incident that he took me as his apprentice, and began taking my training seriously."

 **'Out of guilt, perhaps? That piece of trash...'**

Yami mentally derided, before turning his attention to his father as the man dolefully spoke once more.

"I don't know...I just hope you don't hurt any innocents in this...quest..."

Suddenly, Tendo lifted his head, seemingly looking at something behind Naruto. The boy turned around to see the entrance hole in the wall open up, with someone stepping through it. That someone was a very tall tan-skinned man with long dark-brown hair that reached his shoulders, who looked only two inches shorter than the towering Shurado. He had an unusual eye coloring of green irides, red sclera, and no pupils. Naruto recognized a Takigakure missing-nin headband worn around the man's forehead, and his lower face was covered by a black mask. The only thing about the man's outfit that even remotely surprised Naruto was the fact that the man donned a cloak that almost completely covered his large frame, one that was black and decorated with red clouds.

Yami raised an eyebrow.

 **"So the cloak isn't a symbol of the higher ranks of Ame, aye father?"**

"Evidently not."

As he replied, the blond noted how the tall stranger's eyes swept down to give Naruto a cursory glance before looking up to impassively stare at the ginger man. The white youkai could sense mostly stoicism with a tint of greed from the new arrival, but deep down there was a touch of respect and fear directed at his uncle.

"Ah...Naruto, I believe I must ask you to leave now. This is Kakuzu. He and I have grown up matters to discuss."

The little boy turned back to Tendo with a face of childish curiosity, the heaviness from the previous conversation completely dispelled.

"Grown-up stuff? I wanna know!"

"Mmm...perhaps later."

Tendo replied in an amused tone. The child's quick propensity to bounce back to a lighter state of mind was rather endearing as he got to know the boy. It was a trait he remembered was shared by...someone else, but for the life of him at that moment, Nagato couldn't think of who.

"Okay! See you later uncle!"

Turning around, the boy issued a light greeting to the tall stranger before darting around him to the exit.

"Nice to meet you, mister Kakuzu!"

As Naruto ran out of the room and out of sight, Kakuzu gruffly said:

"Who was that brat?"

"Never you mind...only that if you so much as touch him...you will experience the _full extent of my wrath_...Am I clear?"

Tendo casually tossed out in his deep voice, all the while projecting a powerful aura that deafened the senses.

"...Affirmative."

Kakuzu responded after a pause. He didn't feel a inclination to press anything with the ring-eyed man before him, especially with the completely one-sided loss against him still fresh. As a veteran shinobi reaching his late eighties -although he might not look it- Kakuzu truly believed that the ginger man was possibly the strongest opponent he'd ever faced, even after considering the late Shodaime Hokage Hashirama Senju. Although the old ninja thought that both men were quite similar: Strength and quality of their chakra, etc...except he had been able to escape the first Hokage, but couldn't do the same to this...'Pain' no matter how hard he tried.

"Good. Now, as you are Akatsuki's newest member, and I am the leader...I brought you here for a little debriefing of sorts before your first full meeting. This will occur in another room, so follow me."

Tendo stood up from his desk and walked over to a wall that wasn't the entrance. It opened up, and both men stepped through it to a rather purple and curtained room with little light. Several spherical chairs were arranged in a circle, and both Pain and Kakuzu got seated on opposite sides.

"So, any questions before we get started?"

Pain asked.

"I only care about the salary here."

Kakuzu bluntly replied.

"Hmm, yes...you did strike me as that sort of person."

The god of Ame said lightly. When he had first met Kakuzu, the Taki missingnin had been surrounded by corpses of Fuma clan ninja and woefully commenting on how little money he would receive from cashing in their bounties.

"Well money-wise...you are aware of the paying rates for missions that normal non missingnin take, yes?"

Kakuzu growled in response.

"The village takes most of the cut."

To the old ninja, it had been one the smaller reasons he had chosen to leave Takigakure in his youth.

"In Akatsuki, that isn't the case. We typically only accept s-rank missions, and pay those in our organization who take them forty percent more than what they would receive in a hidden village. In addition, with us you'll be guaranteed to take them on a frequent basis. So...what do you say?"

Said Pain, extending an open hand to Kakuzu. After a moment, the Taki missingnin gripped it in a handshake.

"...Acceptable."

Kakuzu was quite the miserly individual. The deal sounded quite good, and he was almost positive that he couldn't refuse or haggle even if he wanted to. When Kakuzu let go, the ginger man's rippled grey eyes glinted in a knowing light.

"Since you don't really care about much else, then I can shorten this talk by quite a bit and only give you the bare bones of things. Just fulfill our missions to gather funds for the Akatsuki...and search for information about the Bijuu."

It was here Kakuzu noticed that Pain's expressionless gaze towards him became a bit questioning, so he said this:

"I have an extensive range of contacts in the black market, so I'll see what I can find. Also, I'm not sure if you're already aware of this, but one of Takigakure's most valuable secrets is that they have the Nanabi."

"Oh? How fortuitous that you would know this. Do you know who the jinchuriki is?"

"Can't say. Haven't been there in over sixty years."

The indication of Kakuzu's advanced age and non-matching appearance didn't faze Tendo.

"I see."

The ginger man replied simply. They discussed some other miscellaneous details before wrapping up. It was then that Pain would use his most threatening voice.

"If you betray the Akatsuki, I'll make sure you pay the price. I'm sure I don't have to go into more details there...And one last thing, hurt anyone in Amegakure in any fashion...and I shall _erase your very existence from this world_."

Kakuzu blinked, before he felt the ring -it was a trinket given to him when he joined- on his left middle finger throb. Suddenly, Pain's voice emanated in his mind.

 _"Akatsuki...assemble."_

With varying times, four refracting images appeared on the empty seats nearby. Kakuzu could identify the outline of a woman with some sort of accessory in her hair-a flower, maybe?-, a man with a massive butcher knife as tall as himself lying across his lap, a hunchback who seemingly had no arms, and a being who was encased in some sort of shell that had inward spikes.

The spike person didn't even wait to fully materialize before bursting out excitedly.

"Hey Leader! We got an urgent, special report just for you!"

The bubbly voice seemed to be on the verge of saying more, but was immediately drowned out by a much harsher and darker tone, which curiously also came from the spike person.

 **"Just look at this."**

A large screen appeared before the Akatsuki members, presenting the devastation of an entire forest and several valleys that could be seen for miles around.

 **"Whatever caused this wasn't around when we arrived. However, it's certainly grounds for investigation, wouldn't you agree?"**

"It could be a Bijuu!"

Pain took a few seconds to survey the scope of the destruction before speaking up.

"Where was this?"

 **"Almost exceedingly close to the triple border between the lands of Rain, Grass, and Fire."**

The dark voice replied. From that point on, Nagato kept one thought in mind as the rest of the meeting progressed.

 _'Not too far away. Actually, it's close enough to warrant my personal inspection...'_

* * *

 _Elsewhere, the Land of Demon's eastern border...  
_

A little white-haired boy trotted along all by his lonesome in a dense forest.

"I wonder, will I find others...like me?"

He murmured in giddy anticipation.

 **"Is the land of noodles literally filled with noodles? Don't keep your hopes too high, Naruto."**

Said youkai pouted in response.

"Stop being such a downer Yami."

His fox-ears suddenly twitched, hearing the low rumble of...something...far in the distance.

"Anyway, let's first check out whatever that could be..."

* * *

 **AN:  
**

 **Nada.**

 **Review/Fav/Follow pls :/ (Or all three)**


	14. Land of Demons Arc: To Win and Perplex

**...I think Naruto's trip in the Land of Demons will be an arc, or at the very least a mini-arc.**

* * *

Due to his long distance hearing, as Naruto walked closer it didn't take long for him to start to distinguish the far away sounds of screaming among the distant sounds. Quickly using the Chameleon jutsu to render himself invisible, the boy started to leap amongst the trees, curious to determine what the commotion was. Before long, he arrived at the scene of a small village being attacked. Taking stock of the situation while he invisibly stood atop a tree, Naruto froze as he spotted the perpetrator. At the edge of the small town in front of the boy, where there were some destroyed houses and casualties lying motionless on the grass, there rampaged a large humanoid being with six slender but thick arms and three faces on its head of white hair. It had green markings all over its grey skin, dark beady eyes and razor-sharp teeth. Gazing at the being, the first thing that crossed Naruto's mind was...

"Demon!"

Several townsfolk screamed in terror as they ran away from the monster, who sported an amused look at their sorry, fleeing figures.

"Another village to fall in the name of Lord Moryo's conquest!"

It laughed as it leapt up in a spider like manner with all eight limbs, before slamming them on the ground.

"Doton: Tracking Projectiles!"

From under the surface of where its hands and feet touched the ground, eight large bumps swelled, before suddenly moving towards the village. Fire bursting out of the lumps as they traveled, six of them caught up to several of the fleeing villagers and exploded from under their feet. A good portion of said feet went flying in a spray of gore, while the villagers themselves were launched airborne too. The other two 'homing hills' collided into the sides of a few houses, whose roofs were blasted off from the ensuing explosions on the inside.

Minato watched a few more seconds in growing horror before noticing that Naruto wasn't moving at all. The blond man couldn't stand the sight of the attack any longer, and called out to his son.

"Naruto-"

Any thought to what Minato was going to say next, whether to help the village or escape in worry of Naruto's safety, died in his throat as he beheld his son's face. The boy's eyes were glassy, engrossed in staring at the monster as it swatted away at a few more hapless civilians.

"A demon...yeah...this _is_ what a demon is supposed to do, right...?...It's why they're feared...it's why they're _hated_..."

Naruto decloaked himself and dropped down from the tree, stumbling towards the spider-like creature.

"Hey...you're a demon right? Well, I'm Uzumaki Naruto, fellow demon..."

The boy called when he got close enough to it. The monster turned around and flashed its sharp teeth down at the boy.

"What the fuck are you rambling about brat?!"

In its eyes, the small figure before him was just another sack of flesh to tear asunder. One of it's elongated arms reached for Naruto-

 _Splurch!_

-and stopped just a centimeter off boy's body. In a flash, one of the white youkai's arms had, seemingly of its own volition, thrust forward with a broad black lance-like object forming off the hand. The spear had run right through the monster's chest, where it then began emitting plumes of darkness. The boy beheld the being's shocked face before its entire body was enshrouded in a cloud of black.

 _'I...I didn't do that. Yami...was that you?'_

The dark youkai snorted.

 **"Who else could it be? Listen Naruto, I don't think you should get too into this whole 'meeting other demons' business."  
**

 _'But why? It's one of the reasons I wanted to come here in the first place.'  
_

Yami rolled his eyes.

 **"You misunderstand me. I'm not saying to drop it completely, but just to at least stop making googly-eyes whenever we find one. Based on our memories and the ones we got from others, it appears to me that among humans, there exist those good and bad. Whose to say that demons do not possess the same distinction? I mean, look at this guy. He tried to kill us! If I didn't take control at that moment, he would've struck us..."  
**

The dark youkai paused as the darkness consuming the spider monster finished its task, rushing back into Naruto's body. After both youkai took in the ensuing rush of memories, Yami laughed.

 **"This guy isn't even a demon to begin with! You got worked up for nothing..."**

The man they just devoured, named Ishikumo, was a follower of a cult that worshiped a powerful demon named Moryo. His non-human appearance was caused by ingesting some sort of dark concoction derived from Moryo's dark powers. It also amplified his strength and granted him earth-natured chakra usage of rather refined skill.

 **"Anyway, all I'm saying is whether we meet new people that are humans or demons...there's no need to be more excited over one or the other. If either threaten us...I'll respond accordingly..."**

Naruto took a moment to think of all the people he held close in his heart, and realized he agreed.

 _'Yeah...I shouldn't let my guard down like that again...Human, demon, what does it matter?...I'm still gonna tour this country though.'_

 **"I know. We traveled all the way here, so might as well."  
**

Said Yami. Meanwhile, Minato had linked Naruto's stupefied behavior about the (false) demon to when the boy had tried to act like one in the past back at Konoha, shortly before his abduction by Root. The blond man was worried that his son was willing to embrace those evil acts they had seen, and voiced these concerns.

"Naruto, although I was the one who...condemned you to such a fate...I...I really wish that you don't become a person like this man, willing to commit such wanton violence for no reason..."

After saying this in a pleading tone laced with guilt, Minato saw an instant of a blank face on his son, one that quickly morphed into a bright smile.

 _'Okay dad!'_

Yami grinned inwardly, thinking to himself:

 **'Not without reason, aye?...Yet, if I did have one...'**

The dark youkai knew that in that short second, Naruto had thought only of revenge when he replied to their father. Revenge against the masked man, the leaf...

With the village threat gone, the townspeople slowly began to notice the lack of a disturbance, besides their own screaming and panicking, that is. They slowly trickled back to the areas harmed by Ishikumo's attack. Naruto, who had already became invisible again, watched them from atop a roof of an untouched residence.

The boy saw a woman rush over to kneel and cry over a prone man's body, which was missing an arm at the shoulder. The stump bled profusely on the ground, and the man slowly raised his twitching remaining arm to cup her face.

He saw an old man desperately try to press down on a large chest wound of a young boy. He saw groups of civilians try to delve into the wreckage of destroyed houses, occasionally pulling out the still forms of other people.

 _'Should I...try healing them?'_

Naruto suddenly asked aloud in his mind. He didn't think this out of the kindness of his non-beating heart, just that seeing human flesh wounds for once reminded him of the wounds he mended on injured animals whenever he saw them in forests while traveling, all in pursuit of becoming better at healing. The white youkai realized he had never tried healing humans, at least not since Hinata.

 **"If, to us, they're only training opportunities...in that sense, why not."**

Yami remarked selfishly.

"Of course you should, Naruto. They...you can help them. If you don't help them, who will?"

Said Minato. The blond man wanted his son to grow up to become someone of virtue. The man knew that the boy's dark history in Konoha certainly discouraged such a future...Therefore, Minato wanted to take every opportunity available to encourage Naruto to help those in need, like now.

After hearing their input, Naruto nodded to himself, even if he still didn't fully understand _why_ he had too. Kindness was still rather unfamiliar to the youngster, especially since he had experienced relatively little of it in the past.

Using his sensing jutsu, he identified the wounded who were still living and those who had already succumbed to their injuries, based on the activity of their chakra signatures.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu..."

He whispered, and the appropriate amount of copies appeared around him, all invisible. They all shunshined towards their targets and decloaked themselves, except for their fox-like attributes. There where some cries of shock, while others didn't even notice the Narutos' sudden appearance, being all caught up in their own grief. Extending hands covered in a green aura, the white youkai and copies got to work. There were a some civilians that Naruto had to push away from the bodies in the beginning. Those people were initially startled and indignant, but paused once they saw the deep cuts knit close, the blood stop flowing, the hitched breath of their loved ones ease...

Of course, there were some who stopped breathing completely, which did puzzle the white youkai. One of them was the little kid with the grievous chest wound. Not even three seconds passed after halting the hemorrhage did Naruto feel the kid's chakra signature fully terminate.

 _'Huh? But there's no blood leaking out any more...'_

He thought confusedly.

 **"Lost too much blood."**

Came Yami's dismissive comment. On the other hand, the location of the unfortunate child's fatal injury had reminded Minato of something. It was something he had helplessly witnessed on the battlefield in the past.

"Or...if the vitals are pierced, then even medical ninjutsu can prove not enough. I have seen such cases with own eyes..."

"Hit in the vitals?"

Naruto repeated out loud. Hearing this, the nearby old man quickly pressed a palm to the dead boy's neck, slowly withdrew it and sobbed. Meanwhile, the white youkai was only rolling his father's words around his brain. Yami did too, and slowly commented.

 **"The curative skill of root medics...can't be said to be small...yet if they can't even heal what constitutes as a hundredth as severe, in comparison to the wounds that claimed our parents' lives-your life, father-...quite a gulf to cross."**

Meanwhile, something finally dawned on Naruto as he gazed at other boy's corpse.

 _'I failed.'_

In his training in other paths, there was no real concept of failure...only things Naruto had yet to achieve. The only real way to 'fail' was to never accomplish them at all. Like achieving sage mode...the only way to to fail would be to never have achieved it as long as he lived.

On further thought, his initial unsuccessful attempts to attain sage mode did count as failure; it was just that it had no price attached. At first you don't succeed, try try again. Naruto tried and tried again all he liked, there was no reason not to.

Here, the white youkai now fully understood the gravity of failing to heal someone. Death. There was a feeling he recognized as sadness welling up as he stared into the dead child's lifeless eyes.

Hearing these notions, due to being in Naruto's mind, Minato eventually said this:

"Although I'm not one, in my eyes when a physician treats more and more patients, their medical proficiency becomes better and better. Therefore, when people...unfortunately...die from failed treatments, a physician's skill becomes better regardless."

 _'Thanks dad.'_

He recognized that his father was trying to cheer him up. After pondering for a moment, the boy sighed.

 _'I've made much progress hanging out with you...after this trip, I'm gonna search for grandma...who knows, she might be in this country?'_

 **'And hopefully, she matches up to her reputation...'  
**

Yami thought privately. Ever the pessimist, the dark youkai has long entertained thoughts that Tsunade would not have the level of ability they sought.

Although some of the treated wounded died, others lived. The man with one arm weakly grasped Naruto's forearm.

"Thanks kid...for saving me."

The woman who had sobbed at the man's side also swept the white youkai in a hug, tears of relief on her face.

"T-thank you for saving my hubby!"

"It was no trouble."

Naruto truthfully replied with a smile.

 _'This sort of thing...doesn't feel too bad...'_

* * *

As he was on a trip, Naruto tried to have fun at the village before he went on his way. But given that people had died during the attack, quite a bit of the civilians were involved with funeral preparations. As the whole village was rather small for a small village, it seemed even a few deaths would affect a high percentage of the population. Many of the places Naruto could want to check out were all closed for mourning. After some searching, the boy finally found a food stall that was open.

No one was there bar one old man at the counter washing dishes, who noticed the boy's approach. After scrutinizing the kid up and down a bit, the old man brightened.

"Judging from your appearance, you're the talk of the town! The medic boy who came out of nowhere and saved people of my little border town. Your name was...Nuzuwandi Naruto right?"

Naruto still wasn't too sure how to feel about that. Yet, compared to when people knew of him back at Konoha, he supposed being known here didn't prompt any...unpleasant feelings. Still, since he didn't know whether he liked it or not, the white youkai said this:

"Just call me Naruto, mister. And...I don't deserve to be talked about around here. Some of the people I healed died."

"Quit it with the humble talk! The village healer only knows some herbal remedies, so that super duper first-aid stuff you did was big! You know what? I'll let you pick anything on my menu, on the house!"

The old man slapped the board hanging from the roof behind him.

 _'Free? I didn't come here specifically for food but...okay then.'_

Naruto offhandedly glanced at it and chose the char siu labeled under the specials category in big printed letters.

"To be honest mister, I'm not from around here, and know almost nothing about this land other than its name. Could you tell me some good places to visit? Oh, and can you also tell me if you've ever heard of someone named Tsunade?"

The old man whistled as he started chopping up some marinated meat.

"Sure-"

He suddenly paused mid-stroke.

"-wait...you're not from around here?"

Surveying the seated boy up and down, the old man uncertainly asked:

"You look pretty young to be traveling, so I wager you're not alone?"

"Nope, I am. Why?"

Naruto said simply, although a sense of deja-vu was beginning to creep in.

"So you've been traveling all alone? Your parents don't worry?"

The old man set his butcher knife aside, now fully staring at the kid. Said kid then realized that this situation faintly resembled his first conversation with that captain a few days ago.

"They're dead."

The old man's eyes widened a fraction.

"I'm sorry to hear that kid."

After a moment of silence, he picked up his knife and started chopping again.

"...Although...you...you are someone who can fend for himself. The demon who attacked this village was probably defeated by you."

"Huh? Yeah it was."

"I knew it...the demon suddenly disappears, and you pop up...and it makes no sense for you to be the demon in disguise..."

Naruto heard the old man mutter under his breath. Then, as the cook started broiling the meat, he spoke up again.

"Even so, I must warn you that recently, things have been getting more and more dangerous in the land of demons. Attacks of the supernatural kind have been happening everywhere, on roadsides or by towns."

The old man sighed a bit.

"I can only hope Lady Miroku will quell this unrest, and bring peace to our land once more."

Naruto blinked at the unfamiliar name.

"Who is that?"

"Lady Miroku is the high priestess of the land of demons."

The cook then chuckled and corrected himself. Having finished preparing Naruto's meal, he placed the bowl of roasted pork before the boy too.

"Actually, she's more like our goddess. You see...long long ago a powerful demon named Moryo appeared in our land. He was said to be so powerful the sky would be obscured by his darkness and the earth would shake before his might! It seemed that, given enough time, he would've possibly threatened the entire world, not just our land of demons. Thankfully, it was around that time that Lady Miroku also appeared; she personally defeated the demon and granted our land ages of peace and prosperity...up 'till the recent turmoil, that is."

 **'Ah, yet here we ate a servant of Moryo who had been granted power by him recently, which means that...he has resurfaced? Troubling news indeed...and I have to say, if these details about him are accurate, then he sounds to be quite powerful.'**

Yami thought quietly to himself.

 _'A goddess eh? Not a demon, exactly...but quite interesting too.'_

Naruto first thought. However, after listening to that whole speech, the white youkai also noticed something didn't add up. Swallowing down the first piece of char siu, he spoke:

"You said long, long ago right? Would she even be alive to help you guys now? If she is, then wouldn't she be too old to do anything?"

The roasted pork was actually really good, and that shown on Naruto's face to the cook. The old man seemed to regain of his original good spirits and responded like so:

"Wahaha...let me tell you something good kid, a reason why everyone believes her to be a goddess, and has worshiped her for all these generations, aside from vanquishing Moryo: Throughout all this time, she hasn't aged a bit! The stories of her beauty throughout the ages have never changed!

Oh yeah, you wanted hear about good places to visit and a Tsunade person, right? Sorry, the name doesn't ring a bell, but for your visit thing...back in the safer times before now, the shrines dotting all over the country were the top tourist hotspots. Among those, Lady Miroku's shrine is the most famous; they say good fortune befalls all who pray there. Almost all of the villagers living here have gone on a pilgrimage there at least once, including me."

Naruto's interest was piqued at that point.

"Cool. Could you give me directions there, mister?"

"It's a piece of cake! The road on the western part of town leads right to it, but it takes about a month's journey."

Whatever was still in Naruto's bowl at that moment, he decided to finish it all down in one gulp.

"Opwah! Alright, thank you, old man! See Ya!"

The white youkai took off in the same moment. To him, the village that had just suffered an attack didn't really seem like a suitable place to have fun, besides this restaurant, so he wouldn't dally here any further.

"Oi, wait! Your bill- oh yeah, you don't get one, 'cause the only meal I gave you was free..."

The cook shouted and realized. But Naruto was already gone before he was done talking, so the old man sighed.

"Aahhh youth...a strong kid is still a kid, I guess...well good luck to him, anyway..."

* * *

Naruto supposed that since the old man had judged the journey's time to Miroku's temple in a civilian's perspective, he himself should be able to get there in way less time. So instead of a month, the little boy could probably get there in a hour...maybe even less than that.

Currently, the white youkai was invisibly flying in the sky at high speeds, a Sage Rasenshuriken under each foot. While being cooled by the resisting wind and clouds, he gazed at the view of the ground far beneath him.

 _'Huh, at this height, it doesn't really look like I'm going fast, even though I am.'_

The little boy noted. The sight was quite beautiful: lustrous green as far as the eye could see, blue veins running across the landscape while shining from the sunlight, a large rectangular grey shape slowly advancing forward-

 _'Wait what?'_

Zooming in with his vision, Naruto saw that the shape was actually made of columns upon columns of stone humanoid looking things, all decked out in full armor that looked to be of a previous era. Each brandished a stone weapon in their right arm, and amongst those Naruto spotted swords, axes, spears, bows, halberds, glaives, you name it. Spectral green light shone out of their eyes, and the very earth shook from the thundering of their synchronized footsteps.

Turning off his Rasenshurikens due to the high noise they produced, he began falling from cloud level. A little wind manipulation slowed his descent to a mere glide, and it was when he landed atop a tree that he remarked in his mind:

 _'Wow, this is a...stone army? Dad, have you ever seen anything like this?'_

After a small pause for thought, Minato responded.

"Well...no. It does appear to be some sort of puppet master jutsu, however."

"Oh, so it's one of those remotely controlled techniques, where the real guy behind it is somewhere else?"

Naruto understood. Yami, who had been staring wide-eyed at the stone army all the while, cut in.

 **"Most likely. And if that _is_ the case, how powerful must this user be? In the memories, the Suna jonin that the root fought could control about 3 to 5 puppets. Here, there are...-"**

Uzugan rapidly spinning, the dark youkai made a quick estimate through Naruto's eyes.

 **"...Hundreds of thousands...maybe even a million or so...And I don't see or sense any strings on them either..."**

 _'That's cool.'  
_

Was all Naruto could say to that. The little boy's eyes flashed as he spotted a figure in the distance, seemingly in the center of the stone army's entire formation. In the center four stone soldiers held up some sort of platform with a cushioned mat on top. A man with long pink hair that covered his right eye lounged upon it...if you could call him a man, that is. His skin was pure black, and dark purplish snakes flickered in and out of his body, some sort of Amethyst gem encrusted on each of their foreheads.

Naruto's first thought when he looked at the man's eyes closed, resting form was:

 _'Demon!...at least, I hope that this time it's the real deal.'_

In the mindscape, Yami narrowed his spiraled red eyes.

 **"Hey, you aren't gonna-"**

 _'Yeah yeah I_ _know, I'm gonna be careful, see?-'_

Naruto interrupted as he sent forth a newly created shadow clone. Said clone decloaked itself and reached the demon(tentative) in a single bound with the body flicker technique.

"Heyo! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, nice to meet you! Say mister, are you demon like me?"

The eager child burst out as he stood on the mat. The man slowly opened his left -revealed to be as pink as his hair- eye, and cast a heartless glance at the little boy. With a silent wave of the hand, all of the surrounding stone soldiers turned in unison to attack Naruto's clone. Arrows were shot, spears were thrown...except all of it missed the shadow clone, who had already leapt straight up once it originally had sensed the exuding killing intent from the man.

Watching as the clone formed sage Rasenshurikens and flew higher up, Yami sighed.

 **"Well, never say I didn't expect it to go poorly."**

"You were right, and now we've got a fight on our hands."

Said the real Naruto. Minato, who was observing, had this to say:

"That's correct, although I must say, it's very beneficial that you've started controlling the pace of the fight on the first move, much like how you've done with your battle against those three Ishi nin."

The yellow flash was referring to the white youkai's seemingly established tactic of sending out clones to decipher the enemy's capabilities, a stratagem that reminded the blond man of his student, Hatake Kakashi.

 _'Ehehe, thanks dad.'_

Mind Naruto bashfully rubbed the back of his head.

Meanwhile, the shadow clone salivated at the thought of consuming the pink-haired man, the apparent controller of the stone army, in order to gain his abilities. Seriously, a million stone soldiers? Come on! The little boy was quick to shout:

"Doton: Earth-Style Wall!"

From underneath the man, an earthen partition instantly rose up, launching him skyward with such velocity that he reached about two hundred feet up, about fifty feet above the shadow clone's altitude.

The shadow clone immediately pumped both fists upward at his airborne opponent.

"Raiton Dan: Powerful Breath!"

At the same second, the youkai clone's instincts kicked in and he sidestepped to the left, avoiding a hurled stone spear. And kept doing so to dodge thousands more. With a brief upward glance at the thrown projectiles, the shadow clone saw that they continually traveled hundreds of feet higher per second with no signs of slowing down.

 _'Although their marching pace is slow, I guess their strength is nothing to laugh at.'_

The white youkai concluded. Meanwhile, twin surges of lightning shot themselves at the man, who lifted both arms in an x shape to block his face. With electricity shocking through his body, the pink-haired man groused through gritted teeth.

"Ankoku Ijutsu..."

Packs of dark snakes erupted out of his skin, all rushing towards Naruto's shadow clone, undeterred by the ensuing Raiton attack. As the boy saw the snakes stretch farther and farther, fangs poised to bite, he yelled reflexively:

"Katon: Great Fireball Technique!"

The shadow clone didn't spit out an actual fireball, he spewed out the jutsu in a continuous flamethrower form. The boy felt he had a bit of breathing room as the snakes were swallowed up in flames...except when they reemerged out of it, apparently unaffected. There was less than half a second's distance between them now, and the shadow clone's Uzugan eyes began rapidly spinning.

 _'I'm definitely gonna get bitten now...'_

The boy thought as everything slowed down. With that in mind, the shadow clone detonated the two Sage Rasenshurikens beneath his feet, since he was gonna get dispelled anyway.

 _BOOOM!_

 _Pop!_

In truth, those two Rasenshurikens were much smaller than a normal Rasenshuriken, and had a blade-span of a dinner plate, the actual ball itself being the size of an apple. This was to avoid any accidents and awkwardness while flying, like if the blades were too long, the possibility of them colliding underfoot and Naruto subsequently losing control would have been much higher.

Therefore, when the 'mini' Rasenshurikens blew up, the explosion created was about a sixteenth the size of a normal one. Unfortunately for the pink-haired man, he was close enough to be within the edges of the blast radius. His lower body was instantly vaporized, while the remaining upper half was badly shredded. Down below and not in the blast radius, several rows of stone soldiers had been knocked down by the scything aftermath winds, but had rigidly got back up without a scratch.

Still somehow conscious despite the overwhelming pain, the pink-haired man tried to access his chakra, to no avail.

 _'My medical ninjutsu...I can't...no...'_

He thought before fading into unconsciousness. Instead of his limp body beginning its downward plunge once more, it hung in place, as if it was caught by something.

That something was an invisible dark clone, who had been up in the sky the whole time in reserve. The clone shed parts of its body to consume the man from head to...bisected waist. To the outside observer, it was as if the pink-haired man was swallowed up by thin air.

As the memories came rolling in, Naruto watched as the stone soldiers seemed to look around for visible enemies, find nothing, and continue on marching towards...wherever they were going.

After fully assimilating the memories, the little boy understood why. The man they ate, whose name was Dokuyaku, turned out not to be a demon either. He, like Ishikumo, was a follower of Moryo's cult and had also ingested a dark concoction to gain a demon-like appearance. However, unlike Ishikumo, Dokuyaku was the highly ranked in the cult, while the former was only a small foot-soldier. In short, Naruto instantly obtained a much better picture about the cult overall, and much precious information about it.

Info like how the very top belonged to a family that named all their men Yomi, and how it was only they who directly communed to Moryo himself. Everyone else, including Dokuyaku, had never even seen the paragon they worshiped, who seemed to have a strange propensity of freely lending power. Naruto also learned that the stone army was something recently created using a mix of earth ninjutsu and said dark power (although Dokuyaku wasn't involved in the creation process so the boy sadly didn't get to see how it was made), and that the cult had the grand idea to utilize it to _end the world._

The little boy learned that killing Dokuyaku wouldn't stop the army as truly, it was tied to Moryo's will. It was just the higher ranked you were in the cult, the more devoted you were to the dark demon, you could share control over more of the stone army.

Apparently, Dokuyaku had a high enough position that he could direct the whole thing. Naruto had seen the memories of the pink-haired man leading the army through the Land of Swamps, a country a little west of the Land of Demons. He had used the army to callously attack all in his path, leaving a steady trail of destruction in his wake.

Naruto also learned that those dark snakes were a key component to some sort of dark medical ninjutsu style the cult developed. Also made using Moryo's power, the black serpents could inject chakra and paralyze or kill with just a graze of their fangs. The injected chakra could also be of different natures, and allow the recipient to use said natures even if they didn't originally have them. Furthermore, the snakes also had a extra store of chakra within them, which was actually the dark concoction Dokuyaku and Ishikumo drank. The latter, being a mere foot soldier (and not really all that bright), didn't really know the specifics behind the dark snakes nor the mixture, but with the pink-haired man's memories Naruto grasped that the concoction vastly increased the consumer's chakra and power, as well as inducing a body-mutating transformation. It was all very fascinating to the white youkai, but he could experiment with them later.

Right now, the stone army was still marching before him, completely unaware of his presence. There was one facet about them that did interest the little boy: their durability. Their creators had called them 'invulnerable' plus in the memories, he had seen them get hit by ninjutsu of all sorts by inhabitants of the Land of Swamps. No effect. He had seen some fall off sheer cliffs as they climbed a mountain. No effect.

 **"I'm intrigued as well...just how much can they take?"**

Commented Yami. Meanwhile, once Minato knew of the stone army's purpose, he said:

"The end of the world...? They must be stopped."

"Well alrighty then."

Naruto remarked.

 _'Hmmm...I've already seen that **normal** methods won't work on them, so let's do this...'_

The real invisible Naruto immediately flew up sky high while the invisible dark clone shed its legs to consume its Rasenshurikens, therefore starting a long fall to the ground. Gravity began to take root; the little boy fell faster and faster, all the while forming a certain black sphere of ultimate destruction, the strongest attack of a certain Nine tailed Fox.

 _A hundred feet..._

The Bijuudama reached the standard size the Kyuubi would generally create it as, meaning it was the size of a swimming pool.

 _Thirty feet..._

The giant ball began to spin, spinning faster and faster every tenth of a second. Down below, the stone army took note of the falling sphere in unison.

 _One foot..._

The dark clone grinned as he saw the tailed beast ball manifest four spinning white blades-

 ** _BOOOOOM!_**

* * *

 _Elsewhere..._

In a quiet ornate interior of a temple, the light gasp of a woman, dressed in an elaborate blue kimono, broke the silence. Possessing pearl-like skin and long lustrous grey hair, she blinked a pair of silver, pupiless eyes.

"Again...?...This...I recognize it now...it's...the power of a Bijuu...but this time it is too close for comfort..."

She gracefully strode towards a bowl filled with clear water upon a pedestal.

"I won't allow such a demon to run amok in this land..."

A long staff materialized out of light in her left hand, its top embedded with golden bells. With her right, the woman lightly tapped the surface of the water, producing ripples that warped the reflection of her beautiful face.

"...Mirror of Truth..."

As the surface calmed, the lady beheld the focused face of a white haired boy with whiskers on his cheeks and two fox-ears adorned on his head. Although he appeared focused, the black spirals in his blue eyes also made him naturally look dazed, as well as draw in anyone who stared at them.

The lady grew a bit puzzled as she watched ten furry tails sway behind the boy, as well as the fact that he was seemingly flying high in the sky.

"That is not the Kyuubi...hmm...could it be the Juu-?...No, all nine would have to unify if that were the case, and I would have felt such an influx of power...then, who is that?"

She proceeded to observe him from then on.

* * *

As the technique was under him, the dark clone was blasted upward all the way up to the real Naruto's concealed waiting arms, who while absorbing the clone, kept careful attention of what was happening below.

He couldn't see anything below the gigantic explosion, which had covered not just the stone army, but much of the entire surrounding landscape as well.

After the smoke cleared, Naruto only saw the indent of a massive crater that spanned for quite a few miles.

"Huh, so I guess that's it then."

The white youkai said.

 **"...Wait."**

Yami said after a pause, and at the same second Naruto's eyes suddenly detected a trace of movement...then thousands more.

Deep in the crater a stone arm suddenly broke through the earth...followed by another...and another...and another...'till the earth quaked from the stone army's movements as they stood topside once more, restarting their synchronized march like nothing happened.

Naruto's eyes slowly grew and bigger and bigger as they passed over the many marching soldiers, seeing how they appeared virtually untouched besides some dirt here and there.

 _'What...the...fu-'_

"-Language..."

Minato lightly reproved. Mind Naruto turned to look at his father with his surprised eyes, which then cleared as he matched gazes with him.

"Oh, yeah...Sorry dad."

Shaking off his bewilderment, the little youkai would go on to say:

"I...I didn't really know what I expected to happen but...seriously...?"

 **"Perhaps this Moryo is just...more powerful than even the Kyuubi."**

Yami considered. After a few seconds of thought, Naruto came to a decision on how to proceed next. He experimentally discharged an amount of dark fog the size of one stone soldier, before sending it down to the ground. As it floated close to the ground, the stone soldiers seemed to somehow sense the invisible fog and react, swiping through it multiple times.

Uncaring of this, Naruto controlled the dark fog to envelop one of the soldiers, trying hard to consume it. After a few minutes, he felt that he didn't make any headway at all, so he withdrew the darkness while sporting a confused face.

"I can even eat the Kyuubi but not this?...Wow...This Moryo guy really is on a whole 'nother league...Well, since I can't destroy them...nor devour them...I guess I hafta seal them away?"

The little boy's eyes lit up as he realized he had a place for them too.

"Oh yeah! I could use the dimensional void place!"

Hearing this, Yami grinned darkly.

 **"Oh yess...seal them away...then...with them in captivity, work towards having them serve our designs...to eventually have them under _our_ control..."**

Hearing this, Naruto decided that he liked the sound of that.

Casting a fond sigh at Naruto's excited face and a more dubious one to Yami, Minato addressed both.

"That's all well and good, but you shouldn't use the dimension linked to the Hiraishin. A user travels faster than the speed of light through that dimension to reach their destination. If there were to be something in that dimension while someone used the technique, then there would be a possibility of colliding with that 'something'. Say if someone did collide...the end result would not be good, to say the least."

Naruto took a moment to digest this. In the end, the little boy had a few questions. He started with this:

"What would happen if I hit something while going faster than the speed of light?"

The blond man scratched his head while responding.

"I'm not quite sure how durable you are now son, but I would imagine you would be smashed to pieces smaller than the eye could see."

Oh. That assessment basically cleared up everything Naruto was going to ask next.

"I guess I just hafta make a seal that links to another dimension..."

"Precisely."

Minato replied. After a few seconds, Naruto's eyes lit up again.

"Hey wait...That just means I hafta make a storage seal! I probably need lots what with the crazy number of stone guys and all."

The white youkai also had the concrete stages of a plan already. Being in Naruto's mind, Yami got the full picture of what that was. The dark youkai thought it was rather simple, and had his own idea of just making another Eight Trigrams Seal. However, he quickly realized that the idea of having the stone army inside with him gave him only bad feelings for some reason. Thus, Yami said nothing.

Meanwhile, Minato had only something in mind called Kekkai Shihō Fūji, or Four Corner Sealing Barrier. Created by Tsunade of the Sannin, it sealed a target permanently into another dimension. The technique only required four participants, four scrolls, and a sample of the target's blood. Not only that, the blond man actually had made his own version keyed to his Hiraishin, one that didn't even need a blood sample. He would have used this on the night of the Kyuubi attack, except by the end of that night, Minato had too little chakra to use it, considering at that point he had fought through both the masked man and the gigantic fox.

However, after thinking it over a bit, the blond man decided he would let Naruto follow through on his own solutions. Minato did make a mental note to teach Naruto the Four Corner Sealing Barrier later though.

Unsealing some stolen paper and ink, Naruto began inscribing. Very quickly, the little boy found that he didn't have enough materials on hand to seal the whole one million strong army. What to do...?

Naruto instantly thought of the fact that if he were to use the shadow clone technique, the amount of paper he had would multiply. But he dismissed it once he remembered that once he were to seal the stone soldiers into the shadow clones' paper, should the clones be dispelled, the cloned seals would too, which meant he wouldn't be able to access the sealed soldiers later. The dark clones were of the same situation, and Minato gave an example, citing a summon of his named Gamabunta.

"Were I to make a shadow clone, that would not mean I could summon a second Gamabunta."

The blond man simply stated.

This meant the white-haired boy needed a ton of paper from a 'real' source real quick. He needed...paper...a lot of paper...getting paper instantly out of nowhere would be nice...hmmm...

"...Oh yeah!"

Naruto exclaimed, suddenly recalling someone important.

* * *

 _At Amegakure..._

The Akatsuki meeting had just ended; a certain outline of a woman watched with neutral eyes as the other outlines fizzled out while Pain had sent Kakuzu away...after instructing him how to use the Magic Lantern Body Technique, the jutsu that created the outlines of members who were far away from meeting places.

Now that they were alone, her amber orbs lost their impassive glint.

"Nagato...are you alright? Do you need me to come back?"

Her worried voice was slightly muffled from static, although her eyes and words alone conveyed enough to Pain. The God of Ame broke his standard emotionlessly serious demeanor to smile back.

"No, I'm fine. Thank you for always asking me this."

After some small-talk later, Konan deactivated her Magic Lantern Body Technique too, revealing her real location to be on a small pier overlooking the water at the edge of town. It was the place she always went to when she wanted to be alone. Konan closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of the rain on her skin. The water caused her cloak to hug her body tightly, leaving nothing of her slim figure left to imagination.

 _'...I want to spend more time with him...'_

"...That smile today...how long has it been since the last...he is more of how he used to be...because..-"

Konan suddenly heard distant running footsteps, but kept her cool. From underneath the pier, papers secretly detached themselves from the planks, slowly morphing into razor sharp blades. The footsteps came closer, thudding on top of the planks, and the bluenette heard a familiar young voice shout in greeting:

"Heya Auntie! I've been looking all over for you!"

 _'Speak of the devil...'  
_

She thought, willing her weapons hidden below to disassemble and meld back with the wood. The very reason for Pain's transformation (At least, Konan thought so) had arrived. Turning around, she found herself face to face with one Uzumaki Naruto.

"Hello Naruto. What is it you need?"

The white youkai didn't beat around the bush.

"Could you please give me lots of paper? The more the better?"

Konan blinked at the request. Pulling a black-red sleeve back, a stack of white paper instantly appeared in her hand, as tall as her height. Naruto interestedly noted how the bluenette's papers seemed to be completely waterproof, as they didn't crumple in the slightest despite the pouring rainfall.

"Is this enough?"

The white youkai despondently shook his head.

"No...that's not even close enough. I need more, much much much mu-"

"-What do you need all that paper for?"

Konan finally cut in, slightly confused.

"To save the world!"

Naruto yelled assuredly.

 _'Save the world...?'_

Konan wondered if it was some sort of new game kids played nowadays. Seeing a hint of bemusement in her expression, Naruto tilted his head.

 **"She doesn't believe you."**

Yami helpfully filled in.

 **"Actually, let's just take her with us. Having her there beats having to summon papers to and fro."**

The white youkai blinked before pulling out a scroll. Unfurling it, he said:

"I'll show you, but in order to do that, could you sign this?"

Konan took a good look at it. She recognized it as a summoning scroll, written in a rather complex fashion yet the handwriting left quite a bit to be desired.

 _'Did Nagato teach him this?'_

She wasn't exactly watching when Pain was training the boy, and didn't believe that he could have learnt it at those basic classes. On a more humorous note, the paper lady almost giggled when she saw the names written on the scroll:

Uzumaki Naruto

Uzumaki Naruto

Uzumaki Naruto

Uzumaki Naruto

...

"I could sign it...but is this something you randomly made on your own, or were you supervised?"

 _'Naruto has only a day's worth of training with Nagato...I don't feel that's long enough to bear fruit for anything on the level of creating a summoning contract by one's lonesome...but if Nagato checking it over while he was making it, then it's a different story..."_

"Uhhh...I made this, and it was checked over like a million times."

Replied Naruto. His father had combed over every inch of it over and over, all the while warning his sons the dangers of a faulty summoning contract. Like the possibility of summoning only a _part_ of what you wanted. For living creatures, that would be...quite painful indeed, and possibly fatal.

Konan took his word thinking that it was Pain who checked it over, bit through the skin of her thumb, and signed it. As she watched her red signature fade to a black color, something occurred to her.

 _'This kid must know how to use clone jutsu...that's why there are so many signatures of his on this scroll...did Nagato teach him that too?'_

Considering this, the bluenette thought perhaps there was another clone somewhere waiting to summon her and said:

"If our destination is somewhere in the city, Naruto, then there's no need to do this. No matter how far from here, I can get us there relatively quickly."

"Yeah, 'cause you can fly right? Well, you'll need to do that where we're going."

Naruto responded. He then looked her up and down a moment before saying.

"Say Auntie...do you know how to turn invisible?"

After staring at the boy for a few seconds, Konan made a few handseals underneath her cloak and softly said:

"...Transparent Escape Technique..."

Minato gave an involuntary twitch, recalling that _that_ jutsu was the one Jiraiya had used for his more...perverted endeavors, and how his sensei had tried (unsuccessfully) to rope him in quite a few times. Naruto watched as Konan shimmered out of view, but could distinctively still feel her gaze upon him.

"Is this acceptable? And also, why do I need to be-"

She never finished the question, and Naruto suddenly could no longer sense her presence. Good. That particular dark clone proceeded to sprint back into the village.

* * *

 _In Pain's tower..._

In a dimly lit room, only the sounds of hushed, hoarse breathing could be heard. Then, a pair of steely grey rippled eyes snapped open, and the pace of the breathing rapidly quickened to the point of hyperventilation.

Elsewhere, on the top floor of the tower, the file case Tendo had been carrying was suddenly crushed in his grip. The ginger man's Rinnegan eyes widened as he sensed the chakra signature of his partner, one of the only few precious people left to him, suddenly vanish.

* * *

 _In the sky over the Land of Demons..._

For Konan, it was if she was being drenched in rain one second, to being bathed in warm sunlight the next. With brisk winds flowing against her body, drying her off, the bluenette also felt the sensation of being airborne, so her paper wings immediately shot out, preventing her from falling.

On Naruto's part, once he detected that his invisible aunt wasn't falling, he called out to her.

"What I wanted to show you is down below, Auntie."

Konan somewhat heard him, but his voice was a little bit drowned out by the distant rumble of...something that seemed to be coming from below. Looking down, she saw a countryside of green, as well as a giant, grey block steadily moving across it, dredging up dust storms in its wake.

"It's quite something, isn't it?"

The bluenette heard the little boy's voice, but upon trying to seek him out, she realized she could not see a trace of him, but could sense him _flying_ a few feet from her position. Another eye-catching fact was the ridiculous amount of power and chakra emanating from just underneath the invisible boy; She didn't even have to try in order to feel _that._ She absolutely didn't believe that Nagato had taught him any of this. To sum that all up, Konan drew the conclusion that-

 _'-There are quite a few things I don't know about Naruto...Just what is he?'_

However, for now the bluenette decided to focus on why she was brought here, to which she presumed had something to do with...whatever was down below.

"What...is that?"

"It's an army of literally one million soldiers made out of stone! Their goal is to end the world or something...and here, look-"

Konan silently sensed how Naruto flew closer, as well as seemingly taking care to angle the two powerful...spheres(?) away. Feeling a small hand suddenly grab hers, the bluenette suddenly got an image of a world atlas of some sort in her mind. An imaginary hand manifested, pointing at the Land of Swamps.

"The army so far had basically destroyed the Land of Swamps and a few surrounding countries. Here I was thinking...who says it can't do the same thing to the rest?"

Letting go of the boy's hand, Konan's amber eyes widened as she listened. Being the skilled ninja that she was, she was quick to ask:

"Tell me all you know about their abilities and capabilities."

Naruto complied. The little boy explained about their rather slow movement, their strength-"They could probably throw their weapons for miles!"-, their single mindedness-"If they lose sight of you, they seem to just keep going on with their day. But if they do see notice us, they'll try to kill us 'till they can't find us. That's also why we should be invisible right now."-, and their durability.

"-Agh! Seriously! I tried so many things on them and nothing worked! Not even my _Bijuudama_ landed a scratch on them!"

Konan's concealed amber eyes suddenly flashed.

 _'...Tailed Beast Ball?'_

The phrase echoed in her mind, and she suddenly became aware of the possibility that the young boy in front of her was a...jinchuriki.

If that was the case...

Konan's mind suddenly flashed back...

... _first time she ever saw Pain look forward to something so much..._

 _...The little boy catching the ginger man in a tight hug..._

Meanwhile, Naruto noticed how his aunt had gotten a bit quiet.

"...Hello?"

Konan's reply betrayed none of the tumult she felt.

"...The fact that you brought me here means you have some sort of idea on what to do now. What is it?"

Naruto knew that the stone army only had their eyes forward, and had progressed quite far away from where he and Konan hung in the sky. He deactivated the Chameleon Technique, and the paper lady saw that he was flying solely on two rapidly spinning ringed blue spheres. Konan heard him call out "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" before suddenly, she could only see smoke in every direction. After it cleared, she could only see Narutos in every direction. There were thousands...no, probably tens of thousands...or even more...

The closest one to her spoke up.

"Well, my plan was to use numbers and seal 'em all pretty quickly...'cept I just don't have the paper to do it."

"...Very well...I will provide."

Konan said, reappearing herself.

Naruto wasn't exactly sure how much paper he was expecting, but it was his turn to be surprised as he witnessed Konan lift both palms to the air, with fountains of white sheets flooding out in a tidal wave like fashion. At the end, there were nearly numberless quantities of paper, with each Naruto receiving a chunk. At the very end, Naruto sensed Konan's chakra signature slightly wane a bit, and instinctively grabbed her hand.

The paper lady silently quirked an eyebrow at him, before suddenly feeling a 'full' sensation, like all fatigue was forcibly wiped away.

She then watched as the many Narutos begin inscribing something she recognized as the Enclosing Technique on each sheet, before all of them began flying away towards the already distant stone army. As she flapped her wings to follow, one of the boys turned back to call:

"It's alright Auntie, I got this. You can just sit back and watch the show!"

As she was curious to see what he would do, Konan complied, hanging back while she saw the army of Narutos take position vertically above the seemingly oblivious stone army.

Naruto grinned as he felt himself assume the optimal position for his plan.

"Doton: Earth-Style Wall!"

Pouring much more chakra than the previous instance he used the jutsu, multiple giant earthen walls instantly rose up amidst the stone army, thrusting several masses of stone soldiers hundreds of feet into the sky, where the Narutos waited. By doing this, the white youkai essentially created a situation where _he_ outnumbered the stone army at every engagement, as every time it would be a few thousands of stone soldiers lifted up to meet a much much superior number of Narutos, who could then attempt to seal the airborne soldiers from all directions in the sky.

Meanwhile, Konan placidly spectated the Narutos in the process of sealing up above and the slowly dwindling stone army down below. All of a sudden, the ring on her right middle finger with the character for 'white' engraved upon it throbbed urgently. Channeling her chakra through it, a deep voice suddenly erupted from the ring, calling out with undisguised worry.

"Konan? Konan? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, thank you."

She quickly assured.

"That's...That's wonderful...I was really-...well I'm certain you're aware already."

"Yes..."

Konan said, smiling. She could tell how worried Pain was over her disappearance, especially since he was the type of man who didn't really show his emotions often.

There was a moment of silence as Pain got said emotions under control. When he spoke again, his voice was much more composed.

"So...where are you currently? I can't feel you anywhere in my rain."

Konan took another glance at the swarm of Narutos, her conflicting thoughts concerning him, more specifically: what she thought he housed, resurfaced. After a moment, she responded while glancing around at the azure color all around her, the white clouds died slightly gold from the sun:

"...The sky. It is especially beautiful today."

"...I see."

"...Do you need me to come back right now?"

The bluenette smiled again, as she could hear Pain rushing to answer in his own stoic way.

"No no, that will not be necessary. Enjoy the view Konan."

"I am."

As the conversation was over, the paper woman ceased powering the ring. About a few miles over, she saw that Naruto was wrapping things up with the stone army. From her high up position, she could only spot a few grey specks left on the ground. After a few seconds, she could spot no grey specks on the ground.

On Naruto's end, the whole experience was pretty fun. When the stone soldiers got close enough to him, they would try to swipe or stab. Although containing tons of strength, their movements were rather rigid and projecting, so evading their strikes was a breeze. The real challenge came when the stone army on the ground finally took notice of the Narutos up above. Volleys of all sorts of weapons shot up, enough to blot out the ground from the white youkai's vantage point. All the boy knew was that by the end of the whole matter, he got some serious dodge training in.

After all of the stone army was sealed away, the swarm of Narutos rushed back to float before Konan.

"Naruto, how should you treat someone who has lent you their assistance?"

Minato prompted. As the boy's father, the blond man had taken it upon himself to teach his young son all about manners. The real Naruto came forward and gave a stiff bow.

"Thanks for helping me out, Auntie."

"It's fine."

She replied simply, before seeing that the little boy seemingly had something else to say.

"...I know I used your paper to seal them away...but could I keep them?"

This was said in the same pleading tone a child would use when confronted with a new toy or pet. There was a short pause as Konan regarded him with a gaze he couldn't identify. In the end, she only repeated herself.

"It's fine."

"Really?! Yatta!"

Naruto pumped his fist in the air, followed by an encore of his clones. Konan quickly spoke up before her voice could be drowned out.

"Could you please summon me back now?"

The white youkai stopped in the midst of his celebration.

"Of course!"

The paper woman then vanished in a cloud of smoke.

* * *

 _Back at Amegakure..._

A damp smell...The familiar feeling of the dense rain hitting her skin...

Konan found herself back at home, in a deserted alleyway with one Uzumaki Naruto. The boy immediately rushed to give her a flying hug-tackle, which she caught.

"Hey Auntie! We did it! Saved the world! And it was a cinch too! Say, how cool was that..."

The enthused youkai slowly trailed off as he looked up and saw Konan gazing at him with a strange expression.

"...Quite a mystery you are..."

Konan murmured as she set the boy down, who heard her perfectly. Naruto then saw her amber eyes flash with seriousness, her hands gripping his shoulders as she bent down to his eye level.

"Naruto, what I am about to say is extremely important, understand?"

Wordlessly, the white youkai nodded as he stared back.

"For your own safety...No matter what, never tell anyone nor let anyone find out about _what_ was sealed inside you..."

She then tugged on her black cloak decorated in red clouds.

"...especially people wearing _this_..."

She then stood up and stepped back a few feet, before disappearing in a splash of water. Naruto was left shocked and utterly confused by her words.

"...what?"

* * *

 **AN: To any who couldn't guess, that Ishikumo character I made up is related to Gitai from the first movie, presumably an older sibling or older cousin. Furthermore, Dokuyaku is also a relative of Kusuna.  
**

 **The reasons for me making both of these characters is because right now in the story is about ten years before the movie actually happened. The gang of four from the movie are...too young to be the antagonists here.**

 **On another note, I'd like to start keeping a tally of all the stuff Naruto has devoured so far:**

 **-Yin Kyuubi**

 **-74 root ninjas**

 **-Kajura, Metoro, Etoro**

 **-Ishikumo**

 **-Dokuyaku**

 **Lastly, please review/fav/follow.**

 **To Guest:**

 **Maybe Hinata will, maybe not :p**

 **To** **luffyxrobin-luffyxnami:**

 **Your wish is somewhat granted.**

 **To Fuyuriko:**

 **Thanks again, bud.**


	15. Land of Demons Arc: A New Friend

Sealing seals in empty seals. That was all Naruto (and clones) had been doing for the past few minutes after he realized how cumbersome trying to carry around the countless papers containing stone soldiers would be. He originally had a mountain of empty seals left over even after sealing away the whole stone army, so using those empty seals became the next logical decision.

While completing the same repetitive task over and over, Naruto was just going through the motions the whole time, his original avidity over obtaining the stone army was almost completely washed away. His aunt's parting words just kept resounding through his mind. Not really knowing what to think, he sought counsel with Yami and their father.

 _'In the first place, how did she know that I had the Kyuubi sealed inside of me before?"_

 **"...I don't really think she's certain that we had the Kyuubi, but just a tailed beast in general...I mean when you were telling her about how you used the _tailed beast ball_ on the stone army, I caught a flash of...recognition...in her eyes. You should watch what you say in the future, man."**

Said Yami. The idea of someone knowing of that he had a demon sealed inside him made Naruto recall his time at...Konoha, where it seemed everyone knew of that fact...and they...and they...-

The boy's blue eyes slowly dulled, his expression alarmingly empty, yet his lips attempted a crude smile.

 _'Perhaps she was warning me of how others would treat me. Well, it appears that even though she knows, she isn't...she isn't like...well, I'm happy about that at least-'  
_

 **"-Yes, while I agree that Aunt is nothing like _them,_ her words weren't about that sort of thing. Those worthless pieces of trash only tormented us out of pure hate...who she is warning us about is people like root: those who harbor no real ill intent against us, but will target us to obtain the power we possess."**

Yami interrupted. As he heard what the dark youkai said, Minato's expression gradually became melancholic, then grave.

Dipping his voice much lower, Yami muttered:

 **"...and it's all thanks to that foolish balance of tailed beasts..."**

Although Minato wasn't able to hear it, Naruto did, and remembered how his father had mentioned it prior to sealing the Kyuubi into him.

"Oh yeah...I always wondered what the balance of tailed beasts was...hey dad, was it really something worth me?..."

After pausing to carefully think over how to broach that subject, especially since it entailed his son was condemned to be a sacrifice, Minato eventually responded.

"Long ago during the founding of the hidden villages, the first Hokage Hashirama Senju subdued nine titanic beasts, beings who served as literal walking disasters, wreaking havoc and destruction wherever they went. The balance of tailed beasts refers to the setup created when he distributed them amongst the newly created villages. Now, it is defined as a system for checking and balancing power between villages to ensure peace."

While listening to his father's explanation, Naruto began to notice how Yami's face began to darken more and more by each word, his eyes cold. By the end of it, the dark youkai laughed scornfully.

 **"Hahahaha...that was a fine jest, father..."  
**

Confused, Minato slowly turned to the black-haired boy.

"...?...I wasn't joking."

The blond man immediately saw how Yami's expression became frosty, the boy's tone incredulous.

 **"...What? You meant what you just said?"**

Seeing the dark youkai's uncongenial face, Minato carefully responded with a slow nod. Naruto's mental manifestation looked back and forth between them, eventually asking Yami:

"Huh? What's wrong with what dad said?"

 **"Everything. His exposition was completely incorrect."**

Came the dark youkai's blunt response. The yellow flash looked to say something, but Yami was on a roll.

 **"Having a Bijuu is like when cats fluff their fur up to appear intimidating...in other words, it's just a bluff...a bluff that shinobi have never yielded to in the past."**

The white youkai scratched his head at this.

"What does that mean?"

The question seemed to wind Yami up, who proceeded to shoot his father a glare while he spat out:

 **"It means that the balance of tailed beasts have never stopped any the wars of the past from happening!...In fact, it could be said that those shinobi world wars were chiefly _caused_ by the balance..."  
**

While a little uneasy due to Yami's expression, Minato tried to connect Yami's words with his own knowledge.

"That...doesn't match up with the history I've read."

 **"...The history you've read...?"**

Yami repeated with a sneer. From the memories of the root shinobi, the dark youkai had seen them regularly make secret visits to the many information centers of Konoha: Libraries, Konoha's academy, and other such places. They did not do so in search of information, they came to _alter_ it. Lines, paragraphs, passages, books, syllabuses, even entire collections...anything deemed harmful to Konoha's interests or self-image was erased or adjusted accordingly. It was pure censorship, and judging by the memories of the oldest root member consumed, this practice had been conducted since the village's founding. Meaning...

 **"The history texts you've read are all trash literature written to justify or cover up Konoha's endless list of sins..."**

"...what?"

Minato breathed, befuddled even further.

 **"All of it is just words of poison and propaganda...my memories contain the real truth!"**

Yami asserted as he grabbed his father's hand, transmitting the relevant memories. Instead of words on paper, the yellow flash got to experience history firsthand through the eyes of the root shinobi...that and the unaltered history texts before root auditing. It all painted a _drastically_ different picture for Minato, who in the end was lead to question:

"...How much of what I know...is a lie...?"

Naruto didn't really know much of what was going on or discussed, but could tell that his dad was not feeling very well. Hugs always seemed to make the boy himself feel better...therefore, the mind him walked over and wrapped his arms around the blond man's legs. Meanwhile, Yami was striding aggressively back and forth.

 **"I still almost can't believe that you would have this view, regardless of the fact that the root regularly audit everything. It's true that the root have changed much of the public information, but there still is much they haven't changed. Info like foreign affairs, matters concerning other villages that didn't involve Konoha. That information alone creates a perspective that directly contrasts what you've said."**

The dark youkai was completely absorbed in self discussion, not even looking at Minato anymore.

 **"There's always a kernel of truth in every fabrication. Konoha's censorship may have uplifted Hashirama's deed of disseminating the Bijuu to myth-like proportions, but it is true that, after one cuts away the flowery wording, nine ninja villages each got one, including the Shodaime's own. But after the first shinobi world war, what happened? Who held the Bijuu then?"**

It was at this point that Yami snapped his head back to Minato, who was beginning to understand what the boy was getting at.

"...Only the five great ninja villages."

The dark youkai snorted.

 **"They weren't really considered 'great' then, since it was they were a little more than a decade old...but yeah, at that point all nine were held by them...** **Some years after the first ninja world war...The Nanabi jinchuriki, of Iwa, was discovered dead by all! Periods of growing distrust and suspicion among the villages ensues...culminating in the second war!"**

Yami's red spirals flashed in growing anger, each successive word coming out harsher and harsher.

 **"** **Including these examples, just** **how many times did you think the Bijuu changed hands...?...No I think you have some idea..."**

He scornfully stared directly into his father's hushed blue eyes, his voice rising to a rant while gesturing sharply.

 **"** **Does this sound like something that upholds peace? It's the opposite!** **It's so clear that wars were fought because of the Bijuu! Wars were worsened because of them!** ** **This pathetic balance is the _catalyst_ of the shinobi wars! Not its prevention! ** It's no different to how bandits would kill each other over some meager spoils, wild beasts clawing and biting each other over a scrap of meat- ****It's merely the most vile depths of human nature, all uncovered for all to see! It's greed, avarice, selfishness...you name it! The fact that _you_ would have such a defunct and backwards interpretation is _ludicrous_ to me..."**

Shaken, the blond man saw that his dark son had calmed down a bit. The boy was now looking off to the side, while continuing on to say:

 **"** **I know you only did what you thought was right, father...and while I am grateful of the powers of the Kyuubi, the fact remains that a target has been permanently painted on our backs, one that we'll carry our entire lives!"**

It was here that Naruto regained some semblance of the conversation.

"So...that's like what you were talking 'bout before, you said aunt was warning me of people who would target me for my power?"

 **"Yeah. The Bijuu's power is renowned by the whole world. There definitely exists people, villages, groups, who want to claim it for themselves."**

"Oh. So I guess she cares 'bout me then."

The little boy began to feel a little warm inside at the thought of her. That promptly gave way to confusion at Yami's next words.

 **"I'm a little iffy on that...'cause I'm positive that Konan belongs to the 'Bijuu hunting' category."**

"...what?"

Naruto lightly gasped, matching his father's current shaken appearance.

 **"She specifically warned us of people clad in the cloak she wears herself, ergo..."**

Yami didn't have to finish, but Naruto was quick to rebound back.

"But she warned us despite that..."

There was a pause as the dark youkai thought it over.

 **"...Maybe you're right or something...like if I were her, I would've just tried to capture us right then and there...well anyways, if she's gonna be like that, then discuss this with her...-"**

Yami's dark eyes suddenly flashed.

 **"-...And only her for now, meaning not uncle nor anyone else wearing that cloudy cloak..."**

Naruto nodded at first, but then grew curious of the reasoning behind what his dark side said.

"Why just Auntie? I mean, didn't Oji-san say I could talk to him about anything?"

 **"Anything doesn't mean everything...From what I can glean now, those black-reds symbolize a organization of some sort...and judging by the three members we've seen, it's probably international. Most importantly, it has to some unknown degree a directive to hunt down Bijuu..."**

Now in a more taciturn mood, Minato silently found that this assessment matched his own.

 **"So far, we only know that Konan won't hunt us down even though she knows we had one. That might not be true for anyone else in that group...even uncle. I mean, you never know. Let's just play it safe alright?"**

Naruto quirked an eyebrow.

"But what if she told him?"

Yami rolled his eyes at what he perceived as the other boy's slowness.

 **"Why would she warn us not to reveal ourselves to other cloaked guys if she was gonna do something like that...?...By the way, you're done man."**

With a start, Naruto realized that all the towering white stacks that had surrounded him were all gone. The little boy had already mindlessly sealed all the seals into the tattoo-like mark under his forearm. It was just him, alone in an empty field of dust. It was the only visible scenery that remained of what was once a lush section of a forest, after the stone army had trampled it down.

After preparing his Rasenshurikens and cloaking himself again, Naruto took to the skies once more. In the mindscape, there was only an uncomfortable silence as each of the three occupants were stuck in their own thoughts. Yami found the awkward atmosphere too unbearable, and walked away, disappearing into the darkness. Minato glumly watched him go, and once the dark youkai was gone the blond man turned his attention to the little white youkai by his side.

"Naruto...how much of...what Yami said here...were your true feelings?"

Sensing his father wasn't feeling the greatest, due to Yami's words, the little boy said brightly.

"Don't worry! I didn't get most of what you guys were talking about!"

After speaking, the boy noticed that his dad didn't seem to get any happier. Minato only sadly sighed, ruffling through mind Naruto's spiky white hair.

"Haaaah...Ignorance is bliss...yet it is also voluntary misfortune..."

The yellow flash proceeded to carefully explain everything over again, making sure by the end of this new clarification, Naruto misunderstood nothing and understood the whole situation...about his status...the balance...everything.

At the end of it, Minato saw with a heavy heart how Naruto let go of him, wordlessly sinking to the ground, sitting while resting his back against one of the pillars of the giant cage. The blond man bent down alongside him and was about to speak, but the boy's subdued voice cut him off.

"Like I said before...I...I don't blame you...you tried your best...I just gotta...I just gotta have some time to think 'bout this..."

Minato paused for a moment before resolving to say:

"...I'll stay right here if you need me."

In the real world, as he soared through the sky, the corners of Naruto's mouth slowly curled into a smile.

Meanwhile, deep within the darkness of Naruto's subconscious, Yami slowly pushed another dark sword-like object through an already mutilated human torso, who belonged to one of the root ninjas that had cracked already. The man howled and screamed, all of which came out inaudibly due to the surrounding darkness. After swiftly pulling the blade out, the root shinobi collapsed on the (ground?), where one of his dark clones with glowing green hands stepped forward to treat him sufficiently for the next 'play session'.

Although his dark clones always tortured everyone Naruto devoured for him in this dark realm, this time the original Yami came in to participate too, as he wanted a little time to enjoy himself. As Yami absorbed the negative emotions from the root being healed, his father's stricken face appeared in a flash before his mind.

 **"** **I...shouldn't have left things like that...but I don't think I should've not said anything, keeping these feelings bottled up, either...what to do now?"**

Suddenly, a disembodied voice echoed in his mind.

"...Swallow your pride..."

The original dark youkai instantly went on guard, but found he could not trace the source of the voice anywhere in the darkness.

 **"What?! Who are you?"**

Yami snapped distrustfully. The voice seemed to ignore this, only saying:

"...I think its okay to lose your pride over someone you love...rather than hurting or losing someone you love over pride..."

The dark youkai narrowed his red spiraled eyes, and in that moment he drew a conclusion over the identity behind the voice.

 **"Me? Love?...You...You're the light side, aren't you."**

The voice didn't respond, nor speak again, leaving Yami alone in darkness to pensively ponder over its words.

 **"..."**

...

...

Minato suddenly looked up as he heard a faint scream in the distance, and spotted his dark son stepping out of a hole in the surface of the inky blackness. Mind Naruto didn't react, being too distracted by what recently had been revealed to him.

The noise was instantly cut off once the hole closed up in the same second. The blond man watched as the boy stiffly made his way over before plopping himself down at his side.

 **"After much consideration, I have decided that I'll concede the point..."**

The blond man was surprised to hear this, especially considering how angrily self-assured the boy had been earlier. After hearing what Yami now had to say however, Minato's face fell a bit, as the man didn't consider it to be any better than the dark youkai's previous opinion.

 **"...I have properly reflected over the ages that the Kyuubi has lived through...ages long before the jinchuriki were created...It has led me to conclude that even if the Bijuu weren't around... humans...being the humans they are...they would just kill each other over some other meaningless greed..."**

"...You'll concede?...But your new point doesn't make me right by any means."

 **"No, but it proves me wrong. Thus, neither of us are right!"**

Yami said firmly. The little black-haired boy then blinked as he spotted his father's rather curbed expression.

 **"Uh, this isn't really what I wanted to get at. What I really wanted to say was...was..."**

Hearing how the dark youkai was repeatedly trailing off, Minato prompted:

"...Yes?"

 **"...was that I regret my past conduct from a little while ago...I meant every word...but I shouldn't have just ranted like that at you."**

Minato's eye had slowly widened throughout this roundabout apology, and in the end the man flashed a wan smile.

"I appreciate that you would say this, but it's alright son."

 **"Huh? Really?"**

 **'Does that mean I didn't even have to give in?...well, whatever...'**

Yami dismissively thought.

"After all, I do completely understand where you're coming from...Only right now, just like Naruto here, I'm finding myself in need of a little time to process a few things you've said."

 **"Oh okay...you do that."**

Yami replied, before falling silent himself.

For the rest of the flight, there was only a contemplative silence between the three, one of a much lighter nature than before.

* * *

Naruto finally saw the end of the road, which was right before a large village that he estimated by sight to be comparable to Amegakure in size. There was a large temple the white youkai supposed was Moryo's shrine, situated at the base of a mountain right next to the city. Actually, it was more like an oriental palace, one that gave off a mystical air which Naruto could feel despite being far away. It was quite curiously mystifying to the small boy, except he could feel the city's hustle and bustle, which attracted him slightly more. Also, he was fully intent on pushing those thoughts...from before...away, and a lively atmosphere seems like just the thing to do it.

 _'Meh, I'll check out the shrine after.'_

It wasn't like Naruto was in any rush. Decloaking himself and dropping to the ground, the boy was quick to run straight into the village, and was able to mingle within the throngs of people. It didn't take long for him to understand that the village was undergoing a festival. Seeing everyone's smiling faces and realizing that he too was a part of them, in stark contrast to whenever festivals happened in Konoha, Naruto grinned happily.

 _'How great it is to be unknown...not singled out...just another face in the crowd...'_

Pulling out the money he salvaged after (b)eating the three ishi-nin a few days ago, Naruto went to have fun.

In the mindscape, Minato watched on with a soft smile.

 _'...You still have many things to see, Naruto...'_

...The little boy tried goldfish scooping...

...played various target practice games...

"Here you go kid! But just remember, if you walk around with a mask on, watch out where you're stepping. It could be dangerous you know."

A man at a mask stand said, as he handed the white youkai a fox-like mask.

"Gotcha mister, and thanks!"

Naruto responded cheerfully, angling his new visor on top of his head so that it didn't obscure his sight.

...

By the time the sun sank into the horizon, dyeing the clear sky in a warm orange, Naruto made it to the last stall.

"Hey mister, get me a cut up roast squid!"

The little boy declared to the stand owner, a burly bandanna wearing man wearing a sleeveless shirt.

"Hai! I'll give ya the really good one! I'll even give ya an extra, free of charge! Pick kid, pick!"

"You're cool mister, my type of guy! Oh, I know what I want. I'll have half the adult size!"

After walking away, toting his two piping hot squid sticks, Naruto asked himself:

"Now what...where should I go?"

Suddenly two kids ran past him, shouting with peals of laughter.

"Hey, let's go over to the playground! It's the best fireworks viewing spot with no adults!"

Naruto paused for a second and shrugged.

"Well, they weren't exactly talking to me...but why not? Fireworks sounds cool."

Naruto didn't exactly hurry after them, as he was fully content in enjoying the current joyous atmosphere. It matter if those two ran out sight, as all Naruto had to do was ask a nearby person for directions before taking his time to get there.

However, by the time the white youkai walked out of the cover of the buildings into the park's border trees, he saw groups of children all leaving it, walking past him.

"Bah. It's no good."

" _She's_ there."

"Let's just go to the grownups spot."

Naruto heard all this and more from the departing kids. To him, it all sounded like they were avoiding someone. An negatively familiar feeling crept over him, forcing his legs to move forward. Moving past the copse of a few trees, he found himself in a rather large open space, with a clear view of the dusk sky. There were swingsets and the like, but nobody was there...save one lonely-looking little girl his age sitting on a park bench, her head buried in her arms. The white youkai heard her tears and sniffling before he saw her. She was dressed in a kimono of a slightly darker shade than her hair, which was light blonde and tied back for its length below the shoulder.

Despite her apparent lonesomeness, she appeared to a normal girl...except both Naruto and Yami could sense something was off, an ability granted to them as youkai.

 **"...She's not human."**

Then, despite her muffling cries, Naruto's sharp ears were able to hear:

"...Alone again...this year too...am I a demon?"

The little boy took the last part as an admission and readily approached her, while secretly retaining some caution as he remembered the previous two occasions he met 'demons' in this country.

 _'...Those two aside...who knows? Maybe something good will happen this third encounter. Third time's the charm, right?'_

"Hello over there!"

Naruto called out as walked closer. The girl raised her head, scrubbed away the tears in her silvery lavender eyes before staring with a mixture of confusion, wariness, and surprise. She appeared unsure of how to react as Naruto came by and took a seat next to her on the bench.

"You...You're not scared of me?"

The little girl finally said. Naruto replied good-naturedly.

"Why would I be scared of you? I don't even know anything about you."

 **'...even if I have caution...that is not the same thing as fear...'**

Thought an observing Yami. The dark youkai watched as Naruto held out one of his squid sticks, which had cooled to about slightly warm, the 'just right' temperature.

"You don't look so good, but I find things always get at least a little better with a little grub in ya. So here, eat this!"

Naruto saw how her eyes traveled between the offered food and him a few times, before she hesitantly took it.

"...Thank you."

"No problem! Us demons got to stick together!"

Naruto could feel some sort of shift happening as he said this, and saw how the girl grew a little wide-eyed.

"I'm not a demon...you are a demon?"

The white youkai was taken back, beginning to feel apprehensive here.

"You're not a demon?"

"No."

"...Then what were you saying before?-"

"-I'm not a demon."

She confirmed again. A peculiar silence then descended upon the two children, who were staring into each others' eyes during it.

 **"** **We were wrong? Our senses, duped? Well nobody's perfect, I guess. Time to eliminate her."**

Said Yami as he began exerting control over Naruto's empty arm. Before he actually did anything however, the dark youkai felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking up, he saw his father, who said:

"There's no need to do _that._ "

 **"She knows our status, and that's a risk I won't take."**

Came Yami's swift retort.

"She's just a ch-..."

Seeing Yami's pointed look, whose finger pointed at himself, the blond man didn't finish that sentence.

"...She doesn't even know your name. Calm down."

The dark youkai gave a lengthy stare to Minato, but upon remembering events earlier today, the boy turned away and gritted his teeth.

 **"Fine. I hope I don't come to regret this..."**

Meanwhile in the real world, Naruto finally said:

"Oh, and here I was thinking what luck it was to meet another demon...Well, since your not, I guess I hafta ask you to not tell anybody about me."

"I won't. Other than that, I don't even know anything about you."

The girl then flashed her first appreciative smile of the evening as she went on further.

"Besides, it was nice to meet you."

For Naruto, his uncertainty over her vastly diminished once he heard and saw this. Before he knew it, his hand was held out to her.

"Same here. Hey uh, what's your name? Mine's Naruto."

"...Shion."

She said shyly, taking his hand. Rainbow lights suddenly exploded in the sky above them, and Naruto looked up to watch them, snacking on his squid stick as he did so. However, Shion only had eyes for the mysterious boy before her. She did not know much about him, but she did know that she had just made her first friend.

* * *

 **AN: Well, this originally was going to be a much longer chapter, but this looked like a good place to end it soooooo...I chopped it in two again lol.  
**

 **Please review.**


	16. Land of Demons Arc: Equilibrium

In the ensuing fireworks show overhead, Naruto had sensed that for a while now, Shion's feelings had climbed up from rock bottom to...a happy yet anxious mood.

"Say, have you really never heard of me?"

Shion burst out, after Naruto sensed her tenseness hit its peak. Judging from her emotions, Naruto could tell that this question was linked to what still bothered her.

"No, why? Are you famous or something?-"

The boy's blue eyes glinted as he remembered how he found her, which also reminded him of his own life back at Konoha.

"-No, I should ask, are you _in_ famous?"

Seeing how her silvery lavender eyes growing increasingly downcast, Naruto distinctly got the impression that he said something wrong. The boy quickly tried to shift things to another topic. Namely...himself.

"Well, as for me, I'm not from around here. I have journeyed alone to get here from a country faaaar east, so I don't know much."

This seemed to successfully distract her away from despondency. In fact, she looked pretty impressed.

"Oooh. You traveled all by yourself?"

"Yep."

"Whoa, I don't even get to go _anywhere_ without the guards around me."

 _'Guards...? So...she's probably one of those girls from rich families, like Hinata or something?'_

Naruto curiously thought.

 **"Looks like it."**

Yami agreed.

"...Although, right now it doesn't look like there's anybody here 'sides you and me."

Naruto pointed out, having spread out his senses to cover the whole park before he said this.

"Oh, that's because for festivals, I'm not leaving the village anyways, so I order them not to follow me around-"

"-Because you want to make friends and their presence would get in the way..."

Naruto suddenly interrupted, his eyes emitting a strange glint.

 _'I think I completely understand this girl now...'_

Shion immediately stopped short, making Naruto believe himself correct and on to something. The white youkai continued.

"...and then...when you fail...you can be alone, with no one seeing you cry..."

 _'...he...he understands...is he...like me?'_

Shion thought with wide eyes. Naruto watched her stay quiet for a bit before suddenly standing up to shout.

"That's right! But now I don't have to be like that anymore, because I got my first friend!"

The white youkai grinned at the girl that reminded him of himself, and sincerely replied:

"You do? That's great."

"It's you!"

The blond girl said. Naruto blinked in surprise at this.

"It's...me? I'm your first friend?"

The question seemed to chip away at Shion's mood.

"...You..."

 _'...oh, that idea was all in my head, wasn't it?'_

She then shakily asked.

"...Can we be friends?"

"Sure!"

Seeing her like that was only dredging up bad memories, so Naruto quickly agreed.

"Great!"

Shion beamed with genuine joy, before quickly recovering.

"...So, what brings you to this land?"

Naruto scratched his head.

"Well, I was attracted by its name, and thought I might find more of my own kind here. Then I heard about the high priestess and her shrine or whatever so I came here to check it out."

"...The high priestess is my mommy."

Shion suddenly brought up. Naruto narrowed his eyes a fraction.

"Really now? The same priestess who's a goddess, or at least worshiped like one?...And judging from your earlier question, mostly everyone, if not everyone, knows this. Then why...are you being snubbed, excluded...?"

Shion fell silent and looked hesitant to answer. Thinking the girl was like himself, Naruto inquired.

"Don't tell me, do you have a demon sealed inside you?"

"...No."

Her voice was quiet, but Naruto could tell from her emotions that it was not a lie. In the end, he decided just to hear it from her mouth. Although, seeing how hesitant she was, he was quick to say.

"Well, whatever the reason, I swear I won't abandon you or anything. Friends don't do that to each other."

 _'...At least, I hope they don't...'_

Came the boy's true, apprehensive thoughts. Minato, who was watching, smiled proudly at his son's words.

"No Naruto, they do not."

 **" _Real_ friends don't. False friends, on the other hand..."**

Yami interjected with a scowl. The blond man's face slightly fell, knowing what the dark youkai implied. The little black-haired boy had insisted on multiple occasions that someone close to the yellow flash _must_ have betrayed him on the night of the Kyuubi attack, and had pressed him to think of who it could be, or the individuals it could be. Although on the surface Minato had rejected the idea, deep down in his heart a nagging doubt persisted, one that the blond man refused to address, at least for now.

Meanwhile, in the real world Naruto began projecting as much sincerity as he could through his blue eyes. When Shion looked up, trust began to well in her eyes as light lilac met dark blue.

"...I can foretell the future..."

Shion admitted, which immediately caught the attention of all three listeners.

"Wow, that's actually really cool. Now why would they...over a thing like that...hmm...?"

Said Naruto, trying to puzzle it out. The small blond spared him the trouble.

"...Every time, I always see their deaths...and I've never been wrong...so everyone in the village is scared of me..."

"Oh."

Said Naruto, at a loss.

 _'That would certainly do it, wouldn't it.'_

 **"Seems so."**

Commented Yami.

Overhead, the night sky lit up for the last time, the scattered drops of light yielding to the encroaching darkness, announcing an end to the fireworks. A nervous Shion glanced at Naruto's face, and could see it clearly despite the dimness of the night. Upon seeing no spurn, only intrigue, she smiled and proposed.

"Naruto, since you're not from around here, you can stay the night at my place! You wanted to see it anyhow, right? How about it?"

 **"Don't trust her. Reject. If we are to do anything, let it be on our own terms...not on the goodwill of others...if it even is goodwill and not a trap, that is..."**

Yami was quick to distrust, as usual. Minato sighed, no matter how he looked at it, it was just a friendly invitation from a lonely girl who just made a friend.

"You are being overly, unnecessarily, suspicious."

Yami raised his eyebrows in challenge.

 **"Oh? Father, I thought _you_ would agree with this frame of mind. After all, for a ninja, isn't lowering one's guard the same as courting death?"**

Naruto ignored both of them in their ongoing disagreement as he replied:

"Sounds good."

He then found and subsequently let himself be pulled along by a cheerful Shion. The little girl had seen the same thing among the children in the village and had always wanted to replicate it.

"Let's go!"

* * *

"This is my house!"

Shion triumphantly declared as they finally arrived before a big red Torii. The huge gate served as the entrance to a grand plaza with a palace-like temple housed on it, a lofty mountain towering behind it. For Naruto, an up close look made it appear all the more imposing than his original glance from way up above.

"Awesome."

He could also spot numerous guards patrolling about the premises. Among them, on the third floor, Naruto could spot two who were doing nothing but staring at them...no...they were staring at him. The duo consisted of a man and a woman, and Naruto could distinctly sense an inhuman aura about them both. The man was very tall, slender, had long hair that reached his lower back and a calm face, much like uncle's Ningendo Path. Unlike Ningendo, this man seemed even taller and his sleek hair was a cool blue, with his kimono outfit themed with the same color. The woman was almost half a head taller than the man, perhaps seven feet or more. She possessed fiery red hair grown like the mane of a wild beast, seemingly having the same temperament as well. Her blood-red eyes held a glint like she was constantly eyeing prey. Her red robe was worn in a way that hinted at a powerfully built figure and extraordinarily large breasts, each perhaps the size of a man's head.

 **"They are staring at us, and not in a good way. Trap. Fire a Bijuudama at them and let's rid ourselves of this place!"**

Yami paranoidly shouted, his red spiraled eyes darting about. His danger senses had been climbing exponentially for some reason the closer they got to the shrine, putting the dark youkai extremely on edge. Minato sighed, yet also kept a wary eye on the two as well.

"Come on!"

Naruto suddenly heard Shion shout, disrupting the boy's thoughts and interrupting his mini-staring contest with them. He felt his arm and body pulled by the girl in a run across the plaza. When he looked back up, the duo were no longer on the third floor. At that second, Naruto felt Shion stop and gasp in surprise. Glancing forward, the white youkai found the blue man and red woman standing right before them, and began to feel fully conscious of the huge size difference between them and him, especially since they were still staring at him dead in the eyes.

"Eh? Zenki? Goki? How did you two just pop out of nowhere?"

The blond girl asked, before seemingly dismissing it.

"Nevermind, that's not important. What's important is that I made my first friend!"

Shion waved an arm towards the boy beside her.

"His name's Naruto. I invited him to sleep over."

Judging on how her eyes moved as she addressed the pair, Naruto could tell that the blue haired man was Zenki and the woman was Goki.

"Congratulations Ojousama, now please come this way with me. It's late, you must get to bed."

Zenki said, his eyes never leaving the white youkai. Shion frowned.

"Huh? What about Naruto?"

"Since he is your guest, he will stay the night in one of the guest rooms. Goki will lead him there."

The ardent red-head gave a fanged grin.

"Don't worry your little head. Tomorrow, you can play with him all you like..."

At this, the little blonde girl brightened and let herself be led away, turning back to call:

"See you tomorrow Naruto! Good night!"

"Yeah...Good night..."

Naruto replied with way less enthusiasm, while eyeing the large woman from the corner of his eye...who was already walking away, heading towards a different entrance to the huge building. Without turning her head back, seemingly sensing that Naruto hadn't taken a step to follow, she said:

"Well, what are you waiting for? I said I would bring you to the guest rooms, and I will!"

 _'To trust, or not to trust...that's the question here I guess...'_

Naruto contemplated. In the end he decided that it didn't matter, as he already had the dark clones in Ame and other places prepare reverse summoning seals that could be activated at will. He chose to follow the current situation, to follow behind Goki.

The walk was pretty quiet, but when Naruto first stepped through the entrance onto the tatami floor, the doors behind him seemingly swung shut of their own volition, and the large woman commented out of nowhere:

"Hey kid, what do you think about the phrase, 'when pigs fly'?"

Naruto paused a moment from the sudden strangeness of the question.

"Uh, doesn't it mean something that's impossible?"

The tall redhead flashed a smug grin.

"Yeah. Well, definition aside, in my view it should be a different animal, maybe something more...furry."

Naruto instantly knew what she was insinuating. Upon seeing that she didn't slow down her pace, he still followed, but more tensely than before.

 **"She knows about our flying...somehow..."**

Yami muttered, willing the darkness to gradually tighten his hold over Naruto's mind, so that he may assume control in a heartbeat, disregarding things like permission to do so. The tall woman did not speak again until they reached the end of a long hallway, where she pulled a sliding door open and gestured him to go in.

"This isn't your room kid, but get in here anyway. I did say I would lead you there...except I never said when."

"What?"

Said Naruto, not budging an inch.

"This is just a little detour, that's all. My master wants to meet you, and she's waiting inside."

Goki grinned inscrutably, with one muscled arm on her hip and the other pointing again to the open door, which gave a view of a mostly empty room, lit with only a sparse amount of candles. Naruto stood there a few seconds before slowly stepping through to the room. The sliding door slammed shut behind him, but not before Naruto heard Goki boisterously say:

"Heh, I'll warn you: Try anything and I'll be having fox liver for dinner!"

The little boy instinctively turned his head back to see the slight rattling of the door. But then he suddenly heard a serene voice, one that sounded strangely similar to his birth mother's.

"I apologize for her crassness...Although I must say, you _are_ filled with mysteries...mysteries I must uncover."

Naruto spun back around and gave a start of surprise as he saw a lady with fair skin standing in front of him. She wore a white kimono with gold stripes, with a golden crown of sorts atop her head of glossy natural grey hair.

"Uh...uh..."

Naruto faltered, mesmerized by how the lady's pure silver eyes seemed to stare deeply into his very soul.

 **'This...this is it!...This awful feeling...she's the cause!'**

Yami comprehended as his sense of peril skyrocketed, which frightened him to the point of flipping out. He didn't know exactly what he was going to do, but it most likely was something drastic. To his surprise and fear, he found he couldn't move, and couldn't make a sound.

Seemingly responding to his stammering, the lady said:

"...I have no need for your words...only your life-"

The last word jolted Naruto from his trance in a rush of panic-filled adrenaline. However, before his instincts could save him, the lady's silver eyes transformed into purple orbs filled with sacred geometrical patterns, shifting in a kaleidoscope-like fashion with increasing speed, pulling him in...

...

...

...

...and forcing him out, not without taking something from him in the process. It was hard to explain, but in that instant it felt like every single one of Naruto's memories were replayed over from the beginning, in such startling clarity as well. As it was his memories, which included many of _those_ moments, the white youkai's control slipped, unveiling his kitsune traits for all to see, causing him to collapse flat on his back. His blue eyes reverted to their true spiraled appearance, which suited his current dazed state.

After peering curiously at the boy for a bit, the lady seated herself and pulled Naruto's slackened body in her lap, stroking his furry ears with her slender fingers, all the while possessing an introspective expression.

"I see..."

With a wave of a hand, she fashioned eight talismans made of pure light, esoteric symbols scrawled over each of them. Each of the talismans flew to one of the eight corners of the room, causing the twelve edges of the room to glow. Minato took note of this, interested in what he perceived as an advanced sealing technique.

"With this, not even dimensional travel will allow you to escape..."

At this point, she seemed to be debating with herself, and in the end...

"...hmmmm...In the end I believe I shall not exterminate you."

"With your history and obtained power, you definitely constitute as a powerful threat to this world, to all of humanity...however...you are child, and it appears that the path of evil is not the only fate in store...for as drenched in dark as you are...as wronged as you were...you have those who are willing to show you the light...to save you from a life of horror...yes, your father and others are surely good influences...save a questionable few _...but certainly the most malicious of them all is right before me..._ "

Her silver eyes radiated a firm light, her hands moving to cup his whiskered cheeks.

"I choose not to purge you, but the darkness that dwells within."

Minato, who was listening to the whole discourse, raised an eyebrow to what she meant by that. Meanwhile, on the edge of consciousness, Naruto felt an extremely pleasant sensation. From his drooping eyes he could only see a bright light that completely obscured his vision. The light wasn't painful to look at; the boy didn't feel any inclination to shut his eyes. It was just...warm...

 **"-UUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"**

An agonized scream tore through Naruto's mind, snapping him out of his stupor as he instinctively leapt up out of the lady's hold and bounded forward. He identified the pain-filled voice as Yami's, and within his mindscape the white youkai saw his dark half fall to his knees, black fog evaporating from his body, which looked to be on the verge of fading away.

In a flash, Minato was by Yami's side, keeping the boy from falling face-first on the ground. From his position besides the bars of the giant empty cage, the blond man observed that the overwhelming darkness that surrounded in every direction had begun to recede.

"Are you alright?"

The blond man asked the boy.

 **"...It's bearable right now...the real question is where I'll be in a few moments..."**

 **'Based on what she said, I'm probably...going to be destroyed.'**

Yami coughed as he up-righted himself, before suddenly asking:

 **"Father, do you believe that Naruto will be stronger, be better without me?"**

"I..."

Minato fell silent and did not answer.

Meanwhile, Naruto had spun back around, only to see the grey-haired woman gracefully rise to her feet.

"You have darkness tainting you...so much darkness...it shrouds you in so much pain. Worry not, child. I will soon free you from its clutches..."

She said, both hands emitting a light that appeared to take up the whole room, one that strangely wasn't blinding at all despite its intense luminescence. Seeing this and Yami's weakened state, Naruto's first instinct was to get the heck out of there.

Elsewhere, in one of Ame's lone alleys, one of Naruto's dark clones slapped his hand on the ground again and again, growing more and more baffled as he did so.

Back at the land of demons, the real Naruto's spiraled eyes widened in surprise and he quickly reached for something in his pocket.

"Trying to use a technique that you haven't been able to effectively use yet, in such a state of tension and fear, would not be wise. Regardless, your Hiraishin won't even function in this place..."

The hand that had reached for a Hiraishin kunai he had made slowly lowered itself, while Naruto's face clearly expressed its shock.

"How did you know what I was gonna do?"

"I have a rough understanding of who you are Naruto; anticipating your actions is not too difficult."

The lady then gave his startled appearance a look-over, before raising her glowing hands in a placating manner.

"Calm yourself, I will not harm you, I only seek to cure you of your malady..."

Naruto had the look that said he had no idea what she was talking about, which prompted Minato to speak up.

"It looks like you missed a few things while you were out of it, so here I'll explain it to you…."

The yellow flash proceeded to summarize that he believed that the lady used some sort of ability (most likely related with the appearance of that strange purple eye pattern) to witness the boy's entire life, and that she was probably a priestess, possibly the one worshiped as a goddess. After describing her seal that apparently banned dimensional travel, he ended it off with:

"I have heard that priestesses hold the reputation of exorcising evil spirits and the like who endanger people…"

Minato glanced at the dark youkai by his side.

"…To her, it looks like Yami here falls under that category…"

 **"And it looks like she can destroy me without me being able to do anything about it. Her power...is my direct antithesis..."**

Concluded Yami, who was examining his still smoking body. After giving what he was told some thought, Naruto dropped his fist into his palm.

"Oh okay, I get it now."

The boy had done this in the real world, after having stood there blankly for a moment, causing the lady to quirk a brow at him.

"Just what are you discussing in there?"

She said, her silver eyes morphing into a complex purple once more.

In the mindscape, father and sons were surprised to see the grey-haired woman appear out of nowhere before them. Her presence seemed to literally be a beacon of light, causing all the darkness to instantly be dispelled within a large range of where she stood. Yami instinctively leapt back after seeing himself smoke faster, while Naruto purposefully placed himself in-between the other boy and the woman.

"Thanks for trying to help me, but I don't need it. I won't let you hurt Yami."

She looked slightly astonished.

"Child, do you even understand what he is?"

"Yeah, he's my dark half, so what?"

A defensive Naruto replied.

"Yes, he's essentially your Id, the instinctual and dark part of your mind, all your destructive impulses brought to life!...He's far more than just 'half'. It would be extremely dangerous for not just you, but the whole world should he completely take over...and heaven forbid he gains enough power to _exist on his own_..."

As the three heard this, all of them noted how the lady's silver eyes seemed to flash in remembrance.

 _'...Is she talking about herself?'_

Was the feeling Minato got. Meanwhile, Yami sweatdropped, inwardly thinking:

 **'...uh, I think she has either misjudged me, or is extremely biased against me. Why would I want to take over Naruto? I mean, if he was an idiot who wanted to be Hokage or something retarded like that, then maybe...but he _isn't_...Our interests and pursuits align for the most part, whether it be for power or revenge, so me taking over him doesn't make any sense...Besides, I don't care for this world...'**

As for Naruto, the boy returned a defiant stare.

"I don't really care lady! I may not know too much, but I still know that everybody is made up of good _and_ evil. I'm not letting you cut out a piece of my heart, much less most of it! 'Sides, Yami was always there for me, so if you wanna destroy him, you'll hafta get through me!"

 **'...Fool...Doesn't he remember? Him dying seals my fate as well...'**

The dark youkai did feel a bit touched nevertheless. The woman stared at him for a long moment before turning to Minato.

"...And what is your opinion?"

Seeing both Naruto and a fading Yami stare at him as well put Minato in a tentative silence, as the blond man did hold a few misgivings over the dark youkai. In the end, he sighed moved to Naruto's side while replying:

"If I can't accept his dark side, then what right do I have to be his father?"

Minato's gaze then sharpened against the woman, his body tensing like a spring.

"You're looking at this in a simple black and white fashion, when in reality it might not be. In the event you are correct, I still believe in Naruto, that he has enough 'light' in him. I understand your intentions, but don't try to go through with this, otherwise I can't guarantee what will happen next..."

The lady blinked as she saw a stubborn Naruto, a newly resolved Minato, and the dark youkai who appeared stunned. At that moment, to her, Yami hardly had the face of a monster, only a boy who was moved at their inner feelings.

"Maybe I am...So, to you, a dark side is necessary to be whole..."

She acknowledged, before recalling something in Minato's words.

"...Hmmm...enough light...? Not enough in my eyes...a balance must be reached, and if I choose not destroy, then I must create...or in this case, resurrect..."

She held both hands, which began shining brighter and brighter and brighter-

The light was so radiant that Naruto couldn't even see anything for a while. When it died down the white youkai saw that his mindscape had changed completely. Where before there was only a dim light that shone outward from the cage that was surrounded by darkness, now it appeared that half of the mind space was pure white, while the other was the same seemingly endless blackness, the giant cage smack dab in the middle of the two sides.

Naruto noticed that he and everyone else was on the white side (and thankfully Yami's body seemed to have stopped leaking darkness)...except there seemed to be a new addition there as well. In front of the lady stood a boy who looked remarkably like Naruto, same looks, fox-like attributes and everything. However, where Naruto was white, he was yellow, no, he was _gold._ Below the kid's sun-kissed spiky hair, Naruto could see that even his eyes were gold, and also containing white spirals.

"Now, there is an even divide..."

Said the lady as her body began to fade away. Before she completely disappeared from the mindscape, a frown could be seen on her face. Balancing Naruto's light and dark was only one of the two tasks she wanted to accomplish just then. The other was freeing those the boy devoured. While those souls might not be the purest, the root shinobi were stained with blood and the Kyuubi had caused much destruction, the torment they bore now wasn't something Miroku would ever wish on anyone.

However, when the priestess tried removing them, she found that all of them were tightly linked to Naruto's own soul. It was tight enough that removing them would actually chip away at the boy's soul, the foundation of his very existence.

 _'...The power of devouring...'_

There was a flash of recognition in her eyes as they disappeared.

Meanwhile, the trio of father and two sons looked on at the blond boy, who looked unsteady on his feet and had to rest some weight behind his arms that were pushing down on his knees.

"Ah, so dizzy, so dizzy..."

The newcomer moaned, shaking his head like a dog. Seeing Naruto's slightly wary expression, Yami helpfully supplied:

 **"Naruto, that's your light side I told you about before."**

The dark youkai's words cleared the whitehaired boy's doubts, and his attitude did a complete turn around. Naruto rushed over, excitedly saying:

"Hey, it's nice to finally meet the other part of me! So, nice to meet you! I'm Naruto!"

The blond boy seemed to get over his lightheaded state and smiled affably.

"Yeah, I feel the same way. My name is-"

His golden spiraled eyes gleamed.

"-Hikari."

Outside of the mindscape, Naruto saw that the lady seemed to be deep in thought about something. After a while, the silence was starting to get to him.

"...Uh, what's your name lady?"

He suddenly asked. The question seemed to successfully jostle her attention.

"Oh, I didn't introduce myself? I apologize. I am Miroku, the priestess of this land. I know you've heard of me, and I of course know who you are, Naruto..."

Miroku replied, while giving Naruto an evaluating stare that silenced him. After a few seconds passed, she then seemed to come to a decision.

"I do not feel that stabilizing you is enough for me to feel at ease for this world. You or a dark clone of you must stay here at the shrine at all times. I'll accept nothing less."

 **"She still feels like we, or I, are a threat."**

Yami ascertained. He then flashed Naruto an imploring look.

 **"Since she has the power to easily erase me, most likely will should you refuse, and who knows what else she's got up her long sleeves...I gotta selfishly ask you to accept, man."**

The white youkai blinked.

"Uh, okay. Well, can I be led to my room now?"

"Of course."

Miroku flicked her hand, and the eight talismans in the corners of the room seemed to power down. The door was then suddenly and forcefully slid to the side, revealing Goki, who appeared surprised when she saw Naruto. The large and muscular woman barged in and dragged Naruto off, all the while spouting animatedly.

"Ha, and here I was thinking how to explain your disappearance to the little lady! If Miroku-dono has accepted you by not exterminating you, it looks like you're not bad after all!"

After they left, Miroku's expression gradually grew serious.

"Now that's taken care of, I can now focus on the greater threat, something that child's memories has revealed to me...The return of _**Moryo.**_ "

* * *

 _Elsewhere in the Land of Demons..._

A handsome man with dark red skin and scarlet eyes suddenly sneezed.

 **"Is someone talking about me?"**

He asked aloud in a deep and demonic voice, brushing a few of his silky ebony hairs behind his long pointed ears. In the end he shrugged and continued his way through the forest, heading to his destination...

* * *

 **AN: Welp, Hikari is introduced and I got to write in a loose crossover.**

 **Review/Fav/Follow pls :/ (Or all three)**


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